Sonic Resistance 2: Aftermath
by The Burning Writer
Summary: Taking place a month after the end of Sonic Resistance, the war to overthrow the Eggman Empire has been won. Eggman has vanished and so too has Infinite. Things are starting to return to normal as people return to their old lives, homes, and jobs. But as Badnik attacks start to grow more coordinated and more dangerous, worry begins to rise that something is brewing in the shadows.
1. A New Dawn

**It's Mr. Meme back at it again with another Sonic story!**

**I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with my works, and those that have can skip over this paragraph and the next one. You see, a little while ago I had a Sonic story that shared some of the title of this very story, but it didn't the "Sonic Resistance 2:" at the beginning of it. Despite that, the previous story "Aftermath" was very much a sequel to my other Sonic story "Sonic Resistance".**

**But the thing is, I wasn't very proud or content with what how the story was going plot wise. In addition, I had a major hankering to begin including content from IDW's Sonic comics. So, the best thing I could do to feel satisfied with it was cancel the story and start over.**

**That's what this is!**

**Now, if you couldn't already tell, this story will include content from the IDW comics so if you haven't read them:  
**

**1) They're great, please do read them.  
2) Be aware that they're will probably be a few spoilers here and there, even though it'll be different to fit the Sonic Resistance universe.**

**Anyways, with all of this out of the way, I hope that you all enjoy my story. Even if it's take 2 on making a sequel to Sonic Resistance.**

* * *

_It's been a month._

_An entire month since the Resistance, as lead by Knuckles the Echidna, managed to overthrow the Eggman Empire which took over the world with the aid of the Phantom Ruby and it's wielder, Infinite the Jackal._

_A month since said Jackal disappeared._

_A month since the Resistance transformed into the Eggman Recovery Effort._

_The world has begun to recover from Eggman's reign. Cities are being rebuilt, people are returning home, prisoners are being freed, and lost artifacts are being recovered._

_But one problem still plagues the world._

_Eggman's robots, sleek militaristic killing machines, are still active. They still roam the wilderness aimlessly abiding by programing that has been corrupted and is incapable of being completed._

_In some instances, they are harmless, in others, they are a threat._

* * *

Vesper City, a lone city nestled next to the largest mountain range within the United Federations. Unremarkable in many ways, a stereotypical small city you'd find in any small town story. But what they could hold to their name was the fact that just a few feet away sat the remains of a crystal mine that had once made many people and cities rich. Now though, it sat silently untouched. The city was just as silent at this time of day, which just so happened to be the crack of dawn. But there was life within it, there were some who rushed around. To where? A small building that once housed a dry cleaning establishment, but now housed a workshop for various electronics.

A pre-teen Snake Mobian was running through the empty street of the town towards the workshop. He managed to slip through the then open door right as it was closing on him, as an adult Mobian was walking out as the pre-teen was going in. The boy ran up to the counter of the workshop and quickly hit the top of the bell that rested within his reach. Just about as quickly as he arrived and rang the bell, someone walked out from the back area of the establishment where the clothes would be stored had this been a dry cleaner's location. They stepped out from the back area wiping down his gloves from the grime that stuck to it from the work he was doing. Approaching the counter, the Mobian put the rag down and took the goggles off of his eyes and looked over to the pre-teen.

_Miles "Tails" Prower the Fox_ gave him a little grin "What do you need kid?"

The child smiled at him "I'm here to pick up my brother's hearing aids!"

Tails nodded and reached down for a special case designed to hold more delicate objects in it. Pulling it out a little and opening its lid would reveal the specially designed hearing aids for a Fennec Fox. He picked up the aids and handed them over to the kid, with them in hand he turned around and ran out of the building. For the past few weeks or so, Tails has been helping out the people of this town with their various electronic needs. From fixing a broken washing machine, to replacing a pacemaker if need be. He wasn't quite sure how long he was going to stick around, everyone knew that Tails wouldn't stick around permanently, but everyone hoped he'd be there when the sun rose and so far, he has been.

Glancing around the lobby of the building, Tails could see that everyone left in there was just waiting for things that he had yet to finish work on. Being the only one in the town capable of fixing some of these things meant the repairs and such would take a little bit longer than how some would like. Either way, Tails turned around and returned to the area he worked on all things electronic for the town. Walking over to one of the workbenches he had set up for himself, Tails looked over the busted up toaster he was having trouble figuring out what was wrong with. It didn't work properly, but he just couldn't figure out why. But before he could unravel this mystery any further, he heard someone quickly run into the lobby and yell out "Where's Tails?!"

The Fox quickly run out of the work area and back to the front desk to see what this person was up to. The Mobian looked concerned and afraid, something was wrong. As Tails opened his mouth to ask a question, the Mobian cut him off and yelled out "Badniks are approaching the city!"

Tails' eyes went wide "Wait, what?!"

He quickly ran past the Mobian and outside, said Mobian followed. Just like he had said, Badniks were marching towards the center of town, which is where Tails' little workshop was on the edge of. Now, ever since the Eggman Empire fell the Badniks' automated computer network continued to function on very basic levels, it only told them to do the very basic mission parameters Eggman had set up for them. But the way they were approaching the city didn't seem to be how the network usually made them act. Amongst the crowd of Badniks were the usual Egg Pawns and Motobugs, but alongside them was the Egg Hammers, redesigned in the similar way the Pawns had been by Eggman. Tails looked over the approaching hoard with worry "This is bad."

The other Mobian looked over to Tails "What do we do?!"

Taking a moment to think about their options, Tails would eventually look over to the other and say "I've got some Wispons in the back of my workshop, you need to go back there and grab them and then hand them out to everyone in town."

He nodded before Tails began to run towards the hoard, said hoard was beginning to split into groups and spread out around the rest of the city. Meanwhile, the Mobian who had showed Tails the hoard quickly ran into the Fox's workshop and eventually found the crate that the Wispons were inside of. After pulling the top off of the crate, the Mobian would then pull it out from behind the workspace and stop in the lobby. Those that were in there looked at him in confusion before the Mobian said "There are Badniks attacking the city! Tails said we need to pick up these Wispons!"

That's all they needed. They all grabbed a Wispon from the crate and ran outside to deal with the Badniks who were now beginning to terrorize the city, some though grabbed as many as they could and ran outside to arm others. It was chaos. Most of the people in the city only knew which end the Wispon's fire came out of and how to not be hurt by it, but that was about it. Compare that to the Badniks' built in understanding of weaponry and fighting, the citizens didn't stand a chance against them. The only one who could hold their own against the robots was Tails, and he was starting to get overwhelmed by them himself. He narrowly ducked underneath a hammer swing from one of the Egg Hammers before jumping backwards as a Motobug attempted to charge into him. This was getting bad. No one knew how to deal with this. The city wasn't prepared for this.

The Egg Hammer that had attempted to attack Tails began to approach the Fox once again, all the while he muttered to no one in particular "We need help, and fast."

Elsewhere, outside of the city, a lone Mobian stood on a hill that had a good sight of the chaotic fight happening in the city. With a grin, the Mobian said "Looks like the need a little help."

Then, in an instant, he sped off. Two Mobians fell onto their backs as Egg Pawns cornered them, the Mobians' Wispons having ran out of charge at this point leaving them defenseless. Their faces were fearful, their breathing was heavy, and they thought they were about to die. But then, in an instant, a blue blur destroyed the robots and _Sonic the Hedgehog_ came to a stop in front of them. He turned to face the two and smiled a little "You guys okay?"

One nodded and the other was in starshock and speechless. To this, Sonic winked and gave them both some finger guns before speeding off to help out the rest of the city. He made quick work of every robot, and the blue trail he left in his wack let Tails see that his long time friend was just the help he had wished for before. With a grin on his face, the Fox ran between the legs of an Egg Hammer and reached down to pick up a Wispon that had been discarded by a citizen during the chaos. Taking aim at the large robot's back, Tails let the Fire Wispon blast it with all the energy it had left. That spectacle of fire and the light it gave off drew Sonic's attention to Tails and he quickly sped over to the Fox before Spin Attacking right through the weakened metal on its backside. Taking a second to just step out of the way of the falling Badnik, Sonic looked over to Tails and gave him a smile "Long time no see."

Tails tossed the Wispon to the ground "No thanks to you."

Sonic shrugged "Been explorin', what can I say?"

The sound of something being crushed rang out from somewhere else in the street quickly derailed the conversation and Tails said "We should probably deal with the rest of them."

Sonic nodded "Yeah, we should."

With that, he sped off to deal with the rest and Tails ran off to do the same, just without super speed. An Egg Hammer was about to bring its weapon down onto a group of cowering Mobians, but before it could it was taken out quickly by Sonic who then sped off elsewhere just as quickly. Meanwhile, Tails ran back to his workshop to grab a special weapon he kept hidden in it. Slipping a secret storage box out of the wall, Tails would pull out a Wispon designed like an umbrella with a light gray neck that also had two rounded white, black, and light blue studs on it. Very noticeably near the end of the Wispon was a large rounded light blue, black, and white piece which had an open segment. The mouthpiece was quite long and gray in color, with a light blue end. There was only three in the world, one was his, the other was missing, and the last one was bought by a private business. With the Wispon now in hand, Tails ran out of his workshop and took aim at another Egg Hammer and quickly blew its head off easily.

Sonic Homing Attacked off of an Egg Pawn and flew up into the air, where he had a good sight of what Tails did "WHOA! Nice work Tails!"

He then landed back on the ground and sped away once again. With both Sonic running around and Tails using his Wispon to take care of the Badniks, the robots' numbers were thinning. But then suddenly, Tails was hit in the back by a hammer and was sent flying into a wall. He dropped his Wispon and groaned as he tried to stand up, meanwhile, Sonic saw the Egg Hammer knock Tails into the way and quickly ran to his friend's aid. Helping the Fox up to his feet, Tails would give him a little thumbs up before they were covered in the shadow of the larger robot. Tails and Sonic both looked up to it and they both grit their teeth, but then suddenly, its head was blown off by a shot from Tails' discarded Wispon. The two looked off to the left in shock, and saw a shaking and fearful Mobian holding the specially designed Wispon. Sonic gave her a smile "Hey! What's your name?"

The Sheep Mobian looked over to Sonic, still very shocked "L- Lanolin.."

He raised his fist into the air and yelled out with a smile "Nice shot Lanolin!"

Tails looked around for a moment and said "I think... That was the last of them."

It was true, there weren't any Badniks left standing. Sonic and Tails both stepped away from where they had been cornered and the Fox grumbled a little "Gonna have to call the ERE out here to help clean stuff up."

The Eggman Recovery Effort, or as it's more commonly known as, the ERE, was what the Resistance turned into after the end of the war. Although most of its members left following the end of the war, such as Sonic and Gadget. The Hedgehog crossed his arms behind his back and said "I could help out, haven't gotten to help out a city on more personal levels in a while."

Tails shook his head "No, the city's got no where to keep the Badnik parts long term. People like to strip them for parts, and that can be dangerous."

Sonic nodded "Fair enough."

They both began to approach Tails' workshop as the Fox said "You gonna stick around?"

Sonic brought a hand to his hip and one up to his nose to rub the bottom of it a little "Heh, probably not. Thought I'd keep heading north from here."

Tails nodded "Then I _shouldn't_ mention you were here to Amy?"

The Hedgehog chuckled a little "Yeah, probably. Don't want to get her hopes up for something that isn't here and drag her all the way out here for nothing."

They both entered into the workshop as Sonic said "So... I can't be the only one who's noticed the Badniks are getting... Bolder."

Tails nodded a little as he stopped in front of the counter "Yeah.. They have been."

They were both silent a moment before Tails quietly asked "Do you think someone's giving them orders again?"

Sonic shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest "Not sure. Could just be possible we're looking for a pattern that isn't there.. But if someone_ is_ giving them orders again, we'll take them down just like we did Eggman."

Tails nodded and scratched the side of his muzzle "hehe.. Yeah..."

Sonic could tell his friend was worried, he had every reason to be at this point. Eggman did a lot of bad stuff... And they are hot off the heels of his world wide take over too.. Sonic stepped forwards and placed a hand on the Fox's shoulder "Hey, listen.. A lot of stuff's happened recently, I know that. But we made it through, relatively unharmed.."

The thought of their friends, Nicole the Lynx, Bunnie Rabbot, and Antoine D'Coolette, members of the now disbanded Special Forces, being turned into a robot (in Bunnie's case) and an AI (in Nicole's case) as a result of being captured by Eggman, whiles suffering from severe burns and injuries in Antoine's case came to both of their minds as Sonic brought that up. A moment of silence was shared between them for their friends before Sonic continued "The point being, we don't have to fear something we don't even know is actually happening. So, until we discover someone's in charge of the Badniks again, how about we don't worry over something that might not be there?"

Tails grinned a little and nodded "Alright."

With that, Sonic took his hand off of Tails' shoulder and gave him a pat on the back "Sweet! Anyways, I should probably be off."

He then began to walk out of the building, but before he did he said "And Tails, I'll keep an eye out for more Badnik activity. You do the same, alright bud?"

The Fox nodded "Sure thing!"

But, before he ran off. Sonic hesitated a little. Tails hadn't noticed though, he was already behind the counter looking for his communicator when Sonic looked over to his friend and said "Tails, buddy, we'll chat again sometime soon. Alright?"

Tails looked over to Sonic, a little surprised he was still here. But he didn't blame him, they hadn't really talked much in a while. Acting fast, Tails hopped over the counter and ran over to Sonic before pulling him into a hug, all the while he said "Alright."

Sonic smiled, hugged Tails back, and when they pulled apart Sonic stepped outside and sped off. Meanwhile, Tails returned to reaching behind the front desk to grab the communicator he uses to contact the ERE so he could inform them about what had happened. But, completely unknown to them, a lone spybot was perched on the edge of a rather tall building's roof and had watched over the entire battle and Sonic leaving the city at high speeds. Its one eye was actually a camera, and the camera was recording everything. A live video feed was being fed to a secret location, and a lone person was sitting in a large chair watching the feed on monitor. A slight hum escaped the person's lips as they watched Sonic run "So.. The Hedgehog's returned to the limelight once more... Good... Good."

The person switched away from the live feed as Sonic left its sight "It's time for the plan to begin... It's time to lure Sonic right where he needs to be,"

An image of a particular pink Hedgehog Sonic knew well appeared on the screen the video had been once playing on "And we'll accomplish this by targeting _her_."


	2. Sunset Meeting

**Yes, another pre-chapter note. But I just wanted to state that after rereading the previous chapter I noticed that things looked rather scrunched up, so I've decided that I'm gonna try and spread things out. Hope it looks better.**

**Anyways, I do hope that you enjoy this new chapter. Never be afraid to leave a review too.**

* * *

Speeding through the countryside never got old to Sonic, but after spending several days in cities and Eggman controlled territories running like this never felt better. The bright blue sky that was slowly turning yellow and orange as the sun set, the puffy white clouds, the green grass, and the glistening lake that was nearby was all beautiful.

But even Sonic needed to rest every so often.

The blue Hedgehog raced up the side of a large hill and came to a stop at a little hobbled together tent that sat next to a tree which he'd been sleeping in while he was adventuring around the general area of this part of the world. The tent itself was nothing much, just a beige colored tarp with one sleeping bag and a lantern hanging from the branch that held the "roof" of the tent up.

A hand made fire pit sat just outside of the tent alongside a little foldable, portal chair. Taking a seat on the chair, Sonic would taking a deep breath of the cool evening air before grinning a little as he enjoyed nature as he usually does. But then suddenly, he heard a beeping sound come from his tent. Looking over his shoulder, Sonic saw that it was his Miles-Mini Universal Communicator _(MMUC)_ that was trying to get his attention.

Not many people tried calling him on that thing as he'd usually be far away from it when they did, but he knew one person who would.

Reaching over to pick up the device, Sonic would readjust the way he was sitting on his seat before pressing the "ACCEPT CALL" button on the touch screen. The once black screen and beeping disappeared and was replaced with the live video of the person calling him. This person was a very specific female Hedgehog Sonic cared a lot about but hadn't talked to in ages. Someone he loved deeply. With a grin, Sonic said two simple words to his caller "Hi mom."

_Bernadette the Hedgehog_ smiled wide at her son "Hello Sonic! How've you been?"

Sonic shrugged "I've been good."

Following the end of the war Sonic actually returned to his childhood home and the place his family still lived just to see them. Luckily, they were still there and completely safe. Sure, some had be furious at him for never getting in touch with them before then, but for the most part they were just grateful he was alright. With a bit of a grin, Sonic asked his mom "So, how's dad been?"

Bernadette sighed a little "Oh, he's been better. He's _obsessed_ with trying to fix the toaster we never use."

Suddenly, the sound of _Jules the Hedgehog_ yelling out "It's going to work, and then I'm going to make a _butt-load_ of toast!"

Sonic's mother chuckled and shook her head a little before saying "Jules, take a break from that thing and come talk to your son!"

There was a moment of shuffling in the kitchen before Jules came into view of the communicator screen, running a hand through the brown hair on his head and letting out a sigh as he did. Bending over and putting his hands on his knees, Jules grinned at Sonic "Hey bud."

Sonic waved a little "Sup dad."

Jules then asked "So, where you at now?"

He shrugged, glancing over at the still setting sun to check the time before returning his attention to his parents "I'm just up by the mountains of Northamier, not far from Central City."

Jules grinned "So does that mean you won't be stopping by?"

Sonic chuckled "Guess not."

Bernadette jokingly sighed "That's too bad, Manic and Sonia were hoping you'd come home soon, after all, they'd just recently bought a nice little prank kit."

Jules nodded "Oh yeah! They sure did! They were _ecstatic_ when it arrived, used it on me last week too!"

His wife nodded "Manic used the tried and true hand buzzer on him."

Sonic chuckled a little "Sounds like Manic. Gonna assume Sonia hasn't used anything from the kit yet?"

Much to Sonic's surprise, Bernadette shook her head "Oh no, she used something on her friend Mina."

Her son raised an eyebrow "Really? Interesting."

Jules shrugged "The two have been going back and forth since they met at Sonia's art school."

Sometime after the war a private company funded a project to create an all encompassing art school, and by _all encompassing_, that meant everything from interpretive dance to any kind of fashion you can imagine. Sonia was studying in fashion, and from what Sonic had been told, Mina was studying basically every form of music that she could get her hands on. Manic was doing the same, just more drum based. Sonic felt a little proud that his siblings were going to school, they were smart kids. Sonic was about to say something, when very suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound not far from where he was. It was loud enough that even Jules and Bernadette could hear it, Sonic's mother asked "Sonic, sweetie, what was that?"

The blue Hedgehog looked around with a confused expression "Uh... I'm.. Not sure."

Standing up, Sonic would look around once again and see some dust raising from a little ways away. Sonic set down the MMUC before walking towards the edge of the hill and saw that something large had been stomping towards the location the dust cloud was. But, they were so spread out. What could've caused all of this? Well, Sonic's question would be quickly answered when suddenly eight red circles glowed out from behind the dust cloud before suddenly, a Death Crab began to storm out of the dust cloud quickly, heading right for a nearby village. Sonic sped back to the MMCU and held it up "Mom, dad, something's come up and I've gotta get to work. Talk to you sometime later."

He quickly turned off the device before the two had the chance to say anything, and with that, he spun around and boosted right down the side of the hill. The Death Crab just continued to barrel across the countryside with Sonic getting closer as the seconds ticked by. Sonic attempted to boost into one of the massive robot's legs only for the Death Crab to quickly flip itself upside down to avoid being attacked. Just as quickly as it had flipped upside down, it flipped itself right side up once again and continued forwards. Racing forwards again, Sonic sped between the robot's legs when the clawed arm of the robot swiped at him. Luckily, Sonic was able to dodge it by jumping through the still open claw and landing on the other side.

Speeding forwards once more, Sonic looked over his shoulder and at the robot over him "Not a bad race big guy! But there's no way I'm letting you trample that town!"

With that, he sped towards one of the legs before jumping up onto it and using the spikes on it to jump up to the top of the robot. Once up on the top of the robot, Sonic crouched down and charged up a Spin Dash. He spun faster and faster, before letting it loose. With a loud sonic boom, he sped off of the Death Crab as a chain reaction of explosions rocked the robot. He landed on the ground, spun around, and skid to a halt in a crouched position. Where he came to a stop was on the edge of the dirt road leading out of the town the robot had once been coming towards. The same robot toppled over and tumbled across the ground as it skid to a halt as well, the tip of its clawed arm coming to a stop just inches away from the still crouched Sonic and the villagers cowering a few feet behind him.

Sonic stood up and turned to face the villagers, he spread his arms out and bowed while saying in a sing songy way "_TA-DAAAAH_!"

The villagers who had once been cowering from the robot all cheered for Sonic, all the while Sonic smiled "Thank you, thank you."

Then suddenly, the sound of metal creaking came from behind Sonic, it came from the Death Crab. It began to rise up from the ground, Sonic turned to face it as he said "Resilient thing, aren't ya'?"

But out of nowhere, a pink Hedgehog fell from the sky and slammed her signature weapon down on top of it finally defeating the robot once and for all. _Amy Rose_ slid down the top of the Death Crab and landed on the ground. She slung her hammer over her shoulder and rested it there while saying "You're getting sloppy Sonic."

Sonic put his hands on his hips "Amy, fancy meeting you here."

She smiled and shrugged "As you no doubt already know, Tails called to inform the Recovery Effort and while I don't doubt his abilities, I knew that even he couldn't have handled that attack as well as he said he did. So of course I figured you had stopped by to help out and it didn't take a genius to figure out you'd be heading to the nearest town to help if needed!"

He nodded a little "Huh, word travels fast..."

Sonic shrugged and turned around beginning to walk away "Ah, nevermind. Looks like things are under control here. Thanks for the save! Laters!"

The blue Hedgehog was about to speed off when Amy yelled out "Sonic **_WAIT_**! I came out here specifically to find you!"

Sonic stopped and looked over to her "Yeah, I know, it's kinda your thing _and_ you just said that."

Amy huffed "Not like that! I mean, I'm always happy to see you and would follow you anywhere if you'd only let me b- but- _UGH_! You always get me so flustered!"

She reached out and grabbed one of Sonic's hands with both of her's, her tail wagging a little as she did "Sonic, I need you to come back to the Eggman Recovery Effort!"

Sonic just raised an eyebrow as he looked at his cupped hand "Come back? Amy, I technically wasn't ever apart of the ERE, just the Resistance. Besides, I thought you all were doing clean-up now that the war is over?"

She sighed, let go of his hand, and set her hammer down on the ground to rest her hands on top of the weapon's grip "That was the plan, but we didn't account for just how large the Eggman Empire's army was. The leftover robots are everywhere, even without Eggman to lead them, they're a constant threat. Randomly attacking anyone they find. The name _'Eggman Recovery Effort'_ is more of a misnomer now, with the Badniks still up and active, _recovery_ is a bit of a side note."

She looked away from Sonic as she continued "The ERE is working to finish this fight by working from a centralized, organized, position. We can be way more effective that way."

Sonic nodded a little, understanding Amy's troubles, before turning around and saying "Nah, pass."

Her eyes went wide and she gasped "Oh for the love of- _WHY_?!"

Sonic turned around once again and put her hands on her hips as he said "Listen, Tails pointed out something that's been bugging me. The last group of Badniks we faced was _way_ more organized than usual. The things came at a perfect time to catch everyone off guard and they had both heavy and light troops as well. But here's what I've been thinking, Eggman hasn't shown up to claim responsibility for that sort of thing. After all, subtly is _not_ his forte."

He pointed to the now deactivated Death Crab "And now we meet up right as a Super Badnik attempts to attack this little village of no real purpose, you know, the place we're likely to be?"

Amy put a hand over her mouth "Yikes... I hadn't thought of that."

She took her hand off of her mouth and said with confidence "Then it's all the more reason for you to come back to the ERE!"

Sonic sighed "Again, never was apart of that, and it's all the more reason for me to hit the road and find out what's going on!"

The pink Hedgehog sighed "You could spend days, weeks, maybe even _months_ bouncing around all over the place looking for clues!"

Sonic punched his right fist into his left hand's open palm "Saving more folks from more Badnik attacks, it's a win-win for everyone!"

Then suddenly, a villager rushed up to them and yelled between gasps and pants "Sonic! Ms. Rose! Emergency! We're under attack!"

Sonic put his hands on his hips and smiled "It's cool, we took out that Death Crab."

The villager shook her head "No! I mean an army! Invading from the west!"

Sonic glanced over to Amy "The Death Crab was a decoy.."

Amy nodded before Sonic began to speed forwards "I'll run ahead and thin them out!"

All the while, Amy and the villager ran into town behind him as Amy asked the other "Do you have any kind of defenses?"

The villager nodded "U- Uh, we turned town hall into a bunker of sorts during the war."

Amy grabbed ahold of the villager's hand "Take me there!"

Meanwhile, Sonic sped towards a group of Egg Walkers that were charging into town. The blue Hedgehog Spin Attacked through the lead one before the closest to him fired missiles at him. He dodged those attacks and sped up the side of a building, elsewhere, Amy had been lead to the town hall and she was now pointing at the doors to the building "Get all the unarmed inside! If you can fight, rally to me!"

While defenseless villagers began to run inside of the building, Amy ran over to a villager that had a Wispon of their own. She stopped them in their tracks and said "Get to the upper floors! Don't fire until the Badniks have entered the square!"

As the villagers began to get into position, Sonic leaped off of the side of the building he was on before Homing Attacking into one of the Egg Walkers, one after the other, he'd Homing Attack into more. While Amy was giving out more orders, a villager run up to her and said "Not everyone is accounted for!"

Amy turned to face the other and said "Pair up! Go door-to-door and bring back no more than ten at a time! Keep low and check your corners!"

With that, the two ran in different directions. Amy herself looked up to a villager with a Wispon up on a building's roof and yelled out "Incoming! Get ready!"

While Sonic was in the process of dealing with more and more Badniks that were flooding into the city, the blue Hedgehog glanced over his shoulder and saw that quite a few where getting past him. He grit his teeth and charged after them, but as the Badniks began to enter into the town square of the village, Amy would yell out "**_NOW_**!"

Then suddenly, the villagers fired their Wispons at the Badniks. The laser fire of the weapons, along with other types of weapon fire, decimated robots. Sonic himself sped over to Amy's side as the fire began to come to a stop. With a smile, Amy said "The first wave is down!"

The villagers chered and Sonic himself smiled as he dusted off his hands. Now that the rest of the Badniks had a lot of ways to go to find more villagers, Sonic looked over to Amy and said "I thought Knuckles was the commander of the Resistance way back when."

Amy raised her hands up and fixed up her quills "Oh, he commanded alright. But who do you think kept things organized?"

Sonic just chuckled "Nice. So, what's the plan?"

Amy crossed her arms over her chest "This is a good defensible position, and the militia is placed well, but..."

Sonic finished what she had been thinking "Too many Badniks?"

She nodded "Too many Badniks. We'll be overrun. We need to find where they're coming from and thin their advance so the villagers can stand a chance."

Sonic grinned, held out his hand, and said "Shall we?"

Amy picked up her hammer and reached out to grab his hand "Let's!"

Then suddenly, Sonic sped forwards with Amy who used her hammer to attack any Badniks that Sonic didn't deal with himself. After a point of Badnik smashing, Sonic would throw Amy up into the air and she'd spin around. As she came down, her spinning attack would take out several Badniks and Sonic sped forwards to grab her. As he continued to run, Sonic would throw Amy up into the air periodically so she could deal with one group of Badniks while Sonic dealt with others. As she flew through the air, Amy yelled out "Isn't this fun!"

Sonic smiled as he jumped over a laser beam "_OH YEAH_!"

Using an _explosion_ from a Badnik, Amy flew up into the air and spun around a little before bringing her hammer down and sending a magic shockwave that destroyed several more Badniks. With that done, Sonic and Amy came to a stop and the pink Hedgehog looked over to the blue one "Y'know, you could do this sort of thing all the time with the E-"

Sonic quickly spun around and began to walk away "Nope."

Amy grunted "Oh come on!"

Returning to the fight, Sonic said "I already told you what I'm gonna do!"

Amy bashed a Badnik with a hammer as she said in reply "You didn't even consider coming back!"

Sonic himself sped up a wall to dodge laser fire "I don't need to!"

At the top of the building he had been running up, Sonic leaped off of it and slammed onto the ground destroyed several Badniks. As he stood up and dusted himself off as well as flicking away some of scrap metal from a Badnik or two "I already know what works best for me."

Amy slammed her hammer down on a nearby Badnik as she retorted "Well, what about what works best for the rest of us?!"

He just shrugged "I'm no good at figuring that stuff out. You are, so you do your thing I'll do mine. Behind you."

Indeed, an Egg Walker was coming towards Amy from behind "If you won't do it for the ERE, do it for me?"

Sonic put his hands on his hips as Amy swung her hammer around and knocked an Egg Walker into a nearby wall, all the while Sonic said "Can't play favorites."

"Then do it for your friends!? Egg Pawns closing in, thirty feet."

Sonic began to run forwards "The've got _you_ remember?"

She brought cupped her hands around her mouth to yell at him "Do it for a chili-dog?!"

He grinned wide "OOH! Now you're talking!"

"**_SERIOUSLY_**!?"

Sonic boosted through a line of Egg Pawns and came to a stop at the edge of town, Amy following close behind. When Amy was close enough, Sonic said "Yo! Enemy convoy just outside the village. Looks like it still has plenty aboard."

Amy ran past as she said "That's not good!"

They both got closer to the large truck that was pouring out Badniks. Amy looked over the growing hoard "There's no way we can get through that crowd."

Sonic put his hands on his hips "Conventionally? No."

He looked over to the other with a smile "I think it's time for a Croquette Bomber."

She looked at him slyly "From _this_ distance? You are a daredevil~."

With that, Sonic crouched down and began to charge up a Spin Dash as Amy waited for the right opportunity to send SOnic flying with her hammer. After a bit of waiting, she finally struck him and he went flying through the Badniks and the large truck, destroying them all. After the destruction of the convoy, Amy came running over to him "Are you okay?!"

Sonic himself was just laughing "HAHAHA! Nice shot Amy! Great job!"

Amy let out a relived sigh "That's it for the invasion. I guess... You'll be going then?"

Sonic nodded as he dusted himself off "Yep!"

He stopped and struck a bit of a pose as the setting sun's light shined on him "It's what I do. Just keep moving, doing good, saving folks, and living as free as the wind. Living by my way."

This sight caused Amy to blush hard and stare longingly. But after a point she'd shake away that flusteration as Sonic noticed it "H- Hey, Amy?"

She sighed a little "You're right."

Sonic raised an eyebrow in confusion "I am?"

Once again, Amy cupped one of Sonic's hands as she said "It's just who you are! And it's all the reasons I love you. I can't change you, I don't _want_ to change you."

Sonic rubbed the bottom of his nose as he said "Heh.. Well... It's not like it's all or nothing, you _could_ come with me."

She sighed "I can't. The ERE needs me to keep everything in order. I've been away too long as is."

She looked over to him "But if you don't mind some direction, Knuckles went to investigate a town to the south. I haven't heard from him, so he might need your help."

Sonic gave her a little salut as he said "Aye-aye cap'n commander Rose ma'am!"

She just shook her head a little "Don't make me slap you."

With that, Sonic sped forwards and off back towards the little camp he had been at before the Death Crab revealed itself, Amy all the while waved him goodbye as the sun finally set behind them.

But unknown to them, at some unknown location, the person who sat in what was once Eggman's chair said "Another failure I did not account for... How much Amy Rose has grown."

The person grumbled a little as they said "And now Sonic is deviating from my projected path. How... Frustrating."

There was a moment of silence from the person, before they pressed a button and spoke into an intercom "I am in need of your assistance."

Both Orbot and Cubot came out from a little door nearby and over to the chair. All the while, Orbot said "You called us?"

The person nodded "Yes.. I want to hold a meeting with the Remnants tonight... But before that, I want to get into contact with the Bishop."

The two robots nodded before Cubot pulled out a little computer chip and handed it over to Orbot who handed it to the person. Said person would slide the chip into a slot in the computer console in front of him as Orbot said "On the bright side boss, Sonic is changing course towards the Bishop's operatives."

Their boss laced their fingers together and said "Yes. I know."

After that, the screen in front of the person would turn on and the Bishop would appear in front of him "Hello King, you needed me?"

The King nodded "Yes.. Sonic has changed the plan... Tell your operatives to move out of there as fast as possible, we cannot lose them and their equipment."

The Bishop nodded himself "As you command."

The screen turned off and the King rested his arms on the chair's armrests "This will be completed as I had saw fit.. My plan will come to fruition, no matter what Sonic does."


	3. Roughing it Up

After Sonic and Amy took care of that Badnik attack on a village in the northeastern areas of Northamier, the night had come fast and Sonic didn't feel like speeding to Knuckles's location in the dead of night. So instead, he went back to that basecamp he had talked to his parents just a few minutes before racing off into action to spend the night there once again. After the crack of dawn, and after Sonic had a nice breakfast, the blue Hedgehog sped off in the direction Amy had told him he'd find his good old red friend.

Come time for Sonic to finally set off for his destination, Sonic sped off. He had come to find that, through the use of the Miles-Mini Universal Communicator which also could surf the web, the city Knuckles was at is nestled around a now defunct mine. The city also had a large wall surrounding it and the entrance to the mine, something set up before the war began. It took Sonic about fifteen-ish minutes to reach a hill that looked over the city, but once up there, he could clearly see an Egg Titan fall to the ground outside of the city wall. A second or so after it fell, one of its arms would be ripped off and Sonic could see _Knuckles the Echidna_ holding the mechanical arm over his head before smashing it into the robot's head, destroying it instantly.

Sonic grinned a little as he said to himself "Oh shoot! For once I'm too late."

He began to speed down the hill "Looks like Knuckles hogged all the fun!"

As he approached the Echidna, he was busy ripping the wires out of a crack in the Egg Titan's head. Sonic skid to a halt as Knuckles tossed those ripped out wires to the ground "You, Knux! Save any for me?"

Knuckles turned around and smiled at Sonic "Long time no see you blue pincushion!"

He dusted off his hands and approached the other "What brings you out here?"

Sonic crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged a little "I ran into Amy in a nearby town. She said you were looking into trouble here, I thought I'd lend a hand."

He couldn't help but nudge Knuckles's side with his elbow before saying teasingly "Y'know, you're awfully far away from the HQ _Commander_ Knuckles."

Knuckles sighed "Not Commander anymore, after the ERE was nice and set up I handed that duty over to Amy. I can lead a militia alright, but something meant for rebuilding isn't my thing. Been away from the Master Emerald too long as is."

Sonic raised an eyebrow "Then why aren't you up there right now?"

The Echidna crossed his arms over his chest "Was going to go up there after relinquishing my position, but Amy talked to me and made me realize there's still a little bit more I can do to help you surface dwellers. This is the second to last thing I'm going to do too."

Sonic nodded and looked over to the wall of the city "So, what's going on here anyhow? What brought you here?"

Knuckles also looked over to the wall "Well, this town is a hub for Wispon distribution. Thing is, the shipments suddenly stopped recent. I came to see why."

With that, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled up to one of the two guard towers that were placed next to the massive doors of the wall "_**HEY! I'M KNUCKLES, FORMER COMMANDER OF THE RESISTANCE! I TOOK OUT THAT EGG TITAN, LET ME IN!**_"

The head of an obviously frightened Mobian poked out from the tower's window "S- Sorry sir. But I'm under orders not to open the gates to anyone!"

Knuckles furrowed his brow in frustration "_**SAYS WHO?!**_"

The Mobian hesitated "I- I can't say!"

Sonic and Knuckles both looked at each other, before the blue Hedgehog sped forwards and up the wall while Knuckles ran up to it and began to scale it with his spikes. Much to the shock of the Mobian. The two landed on the other side of the wall and stood up, only to see any Mobians who had been out and about before were now rushing inside of their homes or other buildings they could get into. Knuckles was silent a moment before saying "Uh.. The Badnik attacks _have_ been getting more aggressive lately.. Maybe that's what's got them spooked?"

The blue Hedgehog shook his head "I don't think so. Something else is going on.."

Almost on cue, the Mobian from the watch tower climbed down from it and whispered to them "You shouldn't have done that! You shouldn't be here!"

Sonic turned to face the Mobian "Why? Whatever's wrong, we can fix it."

The Mobian was actually trembling in fear as he whispered "No, you _can't_! They took all the Wisps and Wispons! Without those weapons, or a way to power them, we don't stand a chance! They're unstoppable now!"

Knuckles looked at the Mobian in confusion "_'They'_ who?"

Sonic nodded "Listen, buddy, you just watched my friend here solo an Egg Titan. We can handle ourselves, start from the beginning, what's up?"

The Mobian took in a deep breath and swallowed his fear "True enough... Okay... Just before the war ended, a couple of mercenaries showed up. They were _ferocious_. They drove back Eggman's forces and saved the town. They _said_ they were going to improve our defenses... But what they really did was take our arsenal and took us prisoner within our own town! Now we have to do everything they say. We have no way to fight back and we can't escape with all the robots stalking outside the wall!"

Sonic looked over to Knuckles as he said "Well then, I think we need to take our complaints straight to the management. Eh, Knux?"

The Echidna punched his fists together "**_Absolutly_**."

The two began to run down the street as Sonic asked over his shoulder "Where can we find these clowns?"

The Mobian pointed to a large building next to the closed off entrance of the mine "Th- They turned the supply depot into a fortress. Just down this road on the right, you can't miss it!"

Sonic nodded "Cool, sit tight, we got this."

They ran over to the building and Knuckles would proceed to climb up the wall and open up a window above them to let them in. As the Echidna glided down to the floor, Sonic jumped through the window and landed next to the pods the Wisps were being held inside of. He whispered over to Knuckles "Yo! I found the Wisps!"

Knuckles next down to one of the pods and put a hand on its glass "Just before he... Went solo back in the war... Tails gave us the cipher for the Wisps' language. We asked for their help in fighting Eggman. They volunteered happily, even choosing to wait in deployment pods like these for when our troops could enter an area. But these guys are being horded.. This is inexcusable."

Then suddenly, a loud laugh could be heard echoing through the building, causing Knuckles to stand up and take a defensive stance. Sonic instead knelt down in front of a pod "Hang tight, just a little longer. We'll free all of you!"

The two walked over to a crate and peaked over it. What they saw was two Skunks, they were sitting at a table surrounded by at least four Mobians. Two seemed to be fanning them with large leaves against their wills, and the other two had been carrying food. One though seemed to have fallen and spilled the food over himself. A Skunk with teal fur was laughing hard but managed to say "Nice one idiot!"

The very much albino colored Skunk slammed his hand down on the table and said "YEah! Now get us another round before we beat some sense into ya!"

Knuckles grit his teeth and looked at the sight with anger in his eyes while Sonic whispered "Wow, they make the Hooligans look like class acts."

The Echidna finally spoke "I'm gonna break them in half!"

Sonic put a hand on Knuckles's shoulder and said "Steady, let's take this one slow. Give the villagers a chance to get out of the line of fire."

Knuckles relaxed a little "Alright. Then I'll break 'em!"

After that, Sonic vaulted over the crate they were hiding behind and Knuckles followed close after him. Upon landing on the ground, Sonic called out "Hey! Tweedle-dumb and tweedle-dumber!"

Everyone else in the room quickly looked over to Sonic and Knuckles in shock as the blue Hedgehog pointed to himself with his thumb "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, maybe you've heard of me?"

He pointed to Knuckles "This is Knuckles, roughest of them all and all around knuckle head."

After that, he put his hands on his hips and continued "You guys are guilty of theft, extortion, kidnapping, and being grade _A_ jerks. So you can either come along quietly or we're gonna get _real loud_."

The albion Skunk stood up and so did the teal one. The albino tossed a glass at the ground and it broke on impact while he said "Who said you could come into _our_ town huh?! Who said you could ruin _our fun_?!"

The teal Skunk nodded "Yeah, we've heard of you _hero_! But you _clearly_ ain't heard of us!"

They began to approach Sonic and Knuckles as the albino Skunk popped his knuckles. Said Skunk would say "You lookin' to scrap?"

The other Skunk grinned "Then get ready to crumble!"

"Brace yourselves for,"

They quickly struck a pose. The albino Skunk standing upright and holding his arms up while the teal one stood behind him in a crouched position while they both yelled out "**_ROUGH AND TUMBLE_****_!_**"

Sonic brought a fist up to his mouth and tried to contain his laughter "Oh no, I was not prepared for this."

Knuckles meanwhile didn't see anything humorous in this situation "Careful Sonic, they're highly coordinated."

That was it, Sonic let out his laughter and put a hand on Knuckles's shoulder as he doubled over "Knuckles... You're the _salt_ of the Earth."

Knuckles shrugged off Sonic's hand and they began to charge towards Rough and Tumble while the Echidna yelled out "Whatever, let's get 'em!"

With that, he charged to tackle the teal one, Rough, but before he could the Skunk jumped over him and dodged the attack. Meanwhile, Sonic was able to send a Spin Attack right into the albino one's, Tumble's, chest knocking him over. Before he could do anything after that, Tumble kicked Sonic off of his body and up into the air. Knuckles punched Rough's jaw and the Skunk staggered backwards before blocking the next punch and sending one of his own right into the side of the Echidna's head. Using his speed to his advantage, Sonic sped around Tumble preventing the larger Skunk from attack him. After a point, Sonic would proceed to come to a stop and spin kick the Skunk right in his ankles which made Tumble almost fall over.

Almost immediately afterwards, Sonic would move to the front of Tumble and attempt to Spin Attack right into him again, only for the Skunk to react fast enough and grab Sonic's Spin Ball. WIth him in hand, Tumble would dribble Sonic like a basketball before throwing him at a wall, only for Sonic to ricochet himself off of the wall and right into Tumble's face, knocking him over. Meanwhile, Tumble jumped over another one of Knuckles's attacks before jumping up to a wall and jumping off of that. While he began to approach the floor, Rough yelled out "_STINK BOMBER_!"

Then, when he hit the floor, a cloud of horrible smelling gas exploded from Rough. Sadly for him, that only made Knuckles's eyes water, as after the cloud appeared Knuckles would lunge forwards and punch Rough in the middle of his chest and send him flying across the room and into a wall. When Rough fell to the floor everyone could see that a large hole had been made from the force of the hit. Tumble ran over to Rough and began to pick him up "C'mon bro, we ain't done yet..."

Sonic pinched his nose and tried to wave away the gas "Whugh... You okay dude?"

Knuckles coughed "I'm _fuhne_."

Tumble punched a hand through a crate and pulled out an Electric Wispon while Rough grabbed a Fire Wispon. As he did, Tumble said "No more messin' around!"

Rough grinned wide "Say your prayers _chumps_!"

Sonic took a ready stance as he said "Okay, that might be a problem."

Knuckles wiped away his tears as he took the same ready stance "I'll distract them. You grab a Wispon of your own and-"

The blue Hedgehog looked over to Knuckles as he cut him off "No, I can do one better."

He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out with a smile "Wisps! It's me, your old buddy Sonic! I saved your planet from DR. Eggman! Remember?"

Rough and Tumble looked at each other in confusion as Sonic continued "A bunch of you chose to stick around on this world! You helped me on the Lost Hex! You helped the Resistance fight the Eggman Empire!"

Sonic spread his arms out "I know fighting isn't your thing, but you've proven you're all powerful and brave! Don't let these jerks boss you around! They need you to bully everyone, but you don't need them!"

Knuckles put his hands on his hips and smirked as Sonic spoke. After he finished, the Wisps in Rough and Tumble's Wispons flew out and the other Wisps in the room did the same. They all surrounded the Skunks and Sonic and Knuckles fist bumped each other while Tumble panicked and Rough tried to bark orders at some Wisps "One of you get in this right now!"

Sonic and Knuckles began to approach the Skunks with the Wispons following behind them. Knuckles punched his fists together as he said "The tables have turned."

The blue Hedgehog raised his hands over his head "They've certainly bumbled."

In unison, Sonic and Knuckles said "It's butt-kick time for _Rough and Tumble_!"

Tumble threw his Wispon down onto the ground as he yelled "No! _NO_! **_NO_**!"

Rough also threw his Wispon down as he yelled "**_That's our thing! You can't do our thing!_**"

But then, Sonic leaped forwards and kicked Rough in the face while Knuckles punched Tumble right on the bottom of his chin. The two flew backwards and they quickly scrambled up to their feet and began to run out of the building. Rough looked over to his brother as he said "Bishop's not gonna like this!"

Tumble looked over to Rough "Who cares?! We gotta save our hides!"

But when they got outside, Rough and Tumble was met by a large crowd of Mobians who were all ready to take on a now weakened and tired Skunk duo. They had no choice but to just stop and stand there as Sonic and Knuckles walked out behind them, the crowd cheering for them as they did. The Mobian from the guard tower ran up to Sonic as he said "You did it! How can we ever repay you?"

Sonic smiled at him "Serve up some chili-dogs and we'll call it even."

Then, suddenly, a Drill Wisp came out of nowhere and spoke his gibberish which caused the Mobian to look at it confused "Er... What's it saying?"

Sonic shrugged "No idea. I don't have Tails's translator handy."

But then, the Wisp flew into the Drill Wispon the Mobian was wearing, much to his shock. Sonic then said "I get it now, it's saying the Wisps plan to stick around and help you guys defend the town."

The Mobian looked at his Wispon foundly "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Meanwhile, two Mobians pointed there now fully powered Wispons at Rough and Tumble. One said "Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted."

The other said "You two are going to be locked up for a longtime."

Tumble spat at one of them before saying "Their little cells won't hold us for long! We'll be out and then we're coming for you!"

Rough nodded "You've made lifelong enemies of,"

They both yelled out in unison "**_ROUGH AND TUMBLE!_**"

Knuckles waved his fist at them while Sonic laughed. As the Skunks were dragged off though, Knuckles let out a sigh of relief before saying "Thanks for the help. Not that I _needed_ it."

They fisted bumped once again as Sonic said "Nah, but you didn't share the Badniks outside. You _owed_ me this."

Knuckles then reached up and began to pet the head of one of the Hover Wisps "Hopefully this is the start of things settling down. I really do miss home."

Sonic pet the "chin" of a Spike Wisp as he said "I wouldn't mind a vacation myself. First we've got to figure out who's controlling Eggman's left over Badniks."

He then stood up right and held his hands up into the air "But before that, we _party_!"

The crowd around them all cheered and Knuckles just sighed and smiled.

Meanwhile, far up into the air and out of sight, an Egg Flapper watched over them. Its visor like eyes relaying a live feed of the sight it was looking over to the King. He tapped his fingers against one of the arm rests of his chair as he said "So... Knuckles is still playing hero on the surface."

Orbot and Cubot began to approach the chair as the King continued "That means Angel Island is unguarded.. The Master Emerald is prone... That will acelerate my plans.._ Considerably_."

Once the two robots reached the chair, Orbot said "As per your request, the rest of the Remnants have arrived."

The King began to stand up from his chair as he said "I asked for them to come last night, not today. That was not my request."

Cubot just shrugged "They all said that they were busy with other stuff, couldn't come when you asked."

He just ignored the robot and entered into the next room where an oval shaped table was sat in the center of it with chairs around it. Sitting at those chairs were the rest of the Remnants. The King sat down on the lead chair and looked around the others sitting at the table as well. In front of him was the Queen, to his left was the Rook, to his right was the Bishop, and next to the Bishop was the Pawn. The King tapped his fingers against the table a moment before saying "I asked you all to come _last night_."

The Queen kept herself stoic as she said "We have lives outside of this little project. We have facades to keep up. Jobs and promises to keep, unlike you."

The King clenched the hand that had been tapping its fingers against the table into a fist as he replied with "When you joined the Remnants, when you _all_ joined the Remnants, you agreed to doing as I order _when_ I order it."

The Rook quickly but in "Now, I'm always willing to watch this little back and forth you two have, this isn't the time."

The Pawn nodded "Yeah, you two can continue this in a private room."

The Bishop just looked at the Pawn with complete bewilderment "..._What_?"

He shrugged "We've all been thinking it. The two would make a great power cou-"

The Kink slammed his hand against the table "Shut up, all of you!"

That did indeed silence everyone, allowing him to say "What I had called you all here for _last night_ was to discuss how Sonic was able to interfere with my plans. He has changed the course of everything, and we have to change course.. If you all had arrived when I asked, then we wouldn't have to change things this drastically."

The Queen spoke up once more "So, how much do we need to change it?"

He was silent a moment before answering "We will need to force certain subjects in other directions and accelerate aspects of the plan."

He looked over to the Bishop "I am going to need you to draw Sonic away from his current trajectory somehow. I don't care how, I don't care where, just keep him away from Ground Zero."

The Bishop nodded as the King looked over to the Pawn "Now's the time to make yourself known, you've dweled in the background for to long. When Bishop comes up with a way to lure Sonic, you will relay the information."

The Pawn nodded as the King said "Rook, Queen, you two must double your efforts. Subject Alpha must be found."

The Queen looked over to the Rook "Things would go much simpler if _he_ let me use my own men."

The Rook looked her dead in the eyes "If we did, you would be outed quickly. No one knows the truth of the Badniks. We continue to use them, we will remain safe."

She just rolled her eyes before the King said "Now, _I_ will be heading to Ground Zero with the Egg Fleet."

The rest looked at him, rather surprised. The Pawn asked "Why now?"

The King brought his hands up and laced his fingers together "Seems as though fate as acted on our side... I need not explain anything more to you, just know, I will be away from the head quarters from some time. But that _does not_ mean I do not have the ability to enact punishment upon _any_ of you if needed."

With that, the holographic projections of the members of the Remnants all disappeared leaving the King as the last one in the room. He stood up and began to walk out, once back in the room his chair was, Orbot and Cubot began to follow him. The red robot asked "So, what now?"

The King looked down at him "You two will remain here.. Make sure no evidence is left behind, but stay in contact with me."

They nodded, and with that, a sliding door opened for the King and he left the room.


	4. Tangled Troubles

"Haven't partied that hard, or for that long, in quite some time."

Sonic was currently outside of the city him and Knuckles had saved from Rough and Tumble just a few hours ago. That little party he'd talked about after their defeat had gone on considerably longer than it probably should have. Heck, Knuckles was probably still passed out from exhaustion in that town at that moment. Sonic wasn't quite sure what time it was, but he could tell it was getting late as the sun had set considerably. The sky was a nice collage of yellows, oranges, light greens, and slowly darkening blues.

Taking a moment to stretch, Sonic would turn around and begin speeding back off to his campsite that was several miles away from where he currently was. He's done a lot of zipping around these past two days now that he thought about it. Hopefully he could actually have a moment of rest and relaxati-

"Is that the sound of a _really_ big Buzz Bomber?"

Sonic stopped dead in his tracks and looked up into the air. Lo and behold, a massive Buzz Bomber dropship was high in the sky and heading towards a city Sonic hadn't even noticed until now. Looks like duty called. Sonic began to run towards the city as he said _"Whoever is organizing Eggman's robots is really stepping up their game. Let's just hope that I can get there before any more damage is done."_

Speeding forwards and up the twisty road that lead into the city, Sonic thought to himself _"It's going to be tough fighting off this army on my own. Maybe Amy as right... I could use the ERE's help on this one."_

Upon reaching the city, Sonic would have to jump over an already defeated Egg Pawn just to get in safely. But when he did he immediately saw that the city's militia had already mobilized and was currently fighting the robots attempting to siege the city _"Then again, the ERE isn't already here. Maybe word hasn't reached them yet? In that case, if I was with them. I never would've known about this attack."_

He boosted through a group of Egg Pawns and the Mobian who'd been fighting that very group herself looked at him in complete surprise. Front flipping right over an overturned trash can, Sonic would continue forwards_ "No time for second guessing. Bash the bots. Save the town. Keep it simple... Even if they're doing pretty well for themselves already."_

Spin Attacking through an Egg Pawn, Sonic would leap up onto a dumpster before jumping up into the air and Homing Attacking into a few more Badniks. The explosion of one of the robots sent him up into the air, and while up there he glanced around and saw what looked like a robot that was being destroyed by someone else. Landing on the ground, Sonic said to himself "Who can that be?"

Glancing around the side of a stone building, Sonic saw a rather familiar Ring-Tailed Lemur using her tail to "punch" an Egg Pawn square in its chest as she jumped off of a different one. Landing behind that Badnik she'd use that tail to wrap around a few remaining Badniks before quickly grabbing ahold of it and tightening the thing's grip and crushing them. The robots exploded and she closed her eyes to keep them safe from debris and the light of the explosion. After the explosion settled down, the Lemur would raise her hands up into the air and say with a smile "Woo! And ow. Woo and ow!"

A stray Egg Pawn who only had half of its body left attempted to fire a plasma shot at her, when Sonic was able to quickly intervene and destroy it "Watch your back!"

The Lemur looked over to Sonic in surprise "Whoa! Thanks!"

Sonic got up and dusted off some bits of metal as he said "Hey, you look familiar. Do I know you?"

That's when she remembered "Oh! Probably not! I mean, I was apart of the Resistance near the tail end of the war, you know, right before we evacuated to Angel Island, but I was more of a wallflower fighter and not a frontlines type of person. Name's Tangle, _Tangle the Lemur_!"

Sonic snapped his fingers in remembrance "Oh yeah! You were brought into the gang along Rotor when we needed Phage to take down the Death Egg's defenses!"

Tangle nodded before the sound of several Egg Pawns stomping towards them could be heard. Sonic and Tangle looked around and saw that they were surrounded. The two got back to back and Sonic said "Seems like we're gonna be fighting together again, like the good ol' days."

Tangle chuckled a little "Not sure the war should be called 'the good ol' days'."

He held one of his hands out a little "Alright, you got me there. Shake on it?"

Her tail moved around and the end of it gripped onto his like a hand before she said "Sure thing blue boy."

"We're not there yet."

Then, they sprung into action. Sonic leaped forwards and kicked an Egg Pawn's head in while Tangle flipped over one of the robots and grabbed ahold of it with her tail. Once she landed she catapulted it over her head and at a trio of robots while Sonic ricocheted between various Egg Pawns before flying up into the air and landing not far from where Tangle was standing at that moment. The Lemur glanced over to him and said "I've been pfending off the odd raids for a while now, but this is nuts!"

Sonic nodded "Yeah, the random gangs are starting to get organized. Dunno why. I'm looking into it."

But then, suddenly, they both saw a massive Motobug tank roll up in front of them. The Egg Pawn manning the turret on the top of the Mototank's head took aim at the two of them, and they both had to jump into the air to avoid being eviscerated by the rapid bullet fire. They landed in the same area they had first met each other in this city before realizing that another Mototank had rolled up to them with Egg Pawns following it. Once again, Sonic and Tangle got back to back as she asked "I don't suppose you're the advance guard for the Resistance, er, Eggman Recovery Effort?"

Sonic had a very concerned smile on his face "Pretty sure they're all busy with similar attacks elsewhere."

She glanced around with that same concern on Sonic's face "Lovely... So! Split them?"

He nodded "If you can keep up, sure!"

But then, everything began to heat up.

Tangle was about to run towards a group of robots when Sonic reached over and grabbed her arm and said "Hold it, I want to see where this goes."

She looked at him with confusion as she only slowly began to realize the heat beginning to rise around them. Then, much like Sonic had expected, a massive funnel of fire erupted from the ground and completely decimated a large portion of Egg Pawns and the Mototank they surrounded. After a moment the funnel began to disappear as a purple furred cat slowly twirled down from the air and to the ground. Sonic smiled as Tangle took on a surprised look "Whoa.."

Sonic began to step forwards as he simply said "Awwww yeah..."

He started to jog forwards as he waved his hand high in the air, a large smile on his face at seeing a special friend he hasn't seen in ages "Hey, Blaze!"

_Blaze the Cat_ crossed her arms over her chest and looked over to Sonic "Sonic! You are here, I assume these are Doctor Eggman's robots?"

He shrugged as he stopped in front of her "You know it. The village needs our help, so, if you don't mind..."

She took her arms off of her chest and fire surrounded her hands "It would be my pleasure."

While all of that went on, Tangle could only look at the two of them in complete confusion. That confusion only got a little more worse as Sonic and Blaze sped off in different directions. Blaze covered herself in her fire and blasted forwards, straight through a gathering of Badniks. After she finished that she jumped up and began to bounce off of Egg Pawns, spinning around like a ballerina as she did. She'd then land in front of the Mototank and blast a few Egg Pawns with her fire. Tangle was chasing after her as she was the only one the Lemur could keep up with. As Blaze attacked more Egg Pawns, Tangle used her tail to scale the side of the Mototank, down on the ground Blaze turned her attention away from the Badniks when she heard Sonic let out a little yelp.

Luckily, he was alright. Letting out a little sigh of relief, Blaze looked over to the Mototank once more as she saw Tangle take control of the turret with the aid of her tail. Shoving it downwards, the turret would then begin to bombard the head of the Mototank's head completely disabling it. After that, she'd throw her tail over to one of the tank's arms and began to pull it up before letting it go, causing the arm to break off and "boomerang" towards an Egg Hammer that was towering over him. The boomeranging arm crashed through the robot and Sonic sped past the hammer that the robot dropped and boosted through a group of Egg Pawns while Blaze caught up with him. Spin Dashing through a few robots, Blaze would blast the ones he missed behind him.

Jumping through the chest of one of the Egg Pawns, he could hear Blaze say "I'm afraid the three of us are not enough."

Sonic landed on the ground not far from her "The town militia's out there too."

She shook her head "Regardless, they're refiling their ranks faster than we can dispose of them."

Tangle ran over to them and pointed up to the Buzz Bomber dropship "They're all coming from that battleship. Not long ago, it flew in and has been dropping robots since."

Both Sonic and Blaze looked skyward as the Hedgehog said "A little beefier than the drop ship Amy and I took out."

He looked over to the Cat "Blaze, can you make it up there?"

Blaze squinted as she inspected the ship "It's too high. It's completely out of range for me."

That's when Tangle chuckled a little "I know we all just met, buuut..."

Sonic and Blaze looked over to the Lemur as she lifted up her tail "...Hop on?"

Sonic looked over to Blaze and held out his hand with a little smile on his face "Ready?"

Blaze looked over to him, she was scared of heights... But with Sonic, she knew she wouldn't be so scared. So, she gave him a warm smile and grabbed his hand "Ready."

Sonic grabbed ahold of Tangle's tail and began to back up about as far as it'd let him before the Lemur gave a little salute and said "Bon voyage!"

With that, Sonic and Blaze slingshot themselves high up into the air, Tangle fell over due to a loss of balance from it. They soared high up into the air and Sonic could tell that her breathing was getting shaky from being so high. So he looked over to her and nodded, giving her the signal to throw him. Sonic curled up into a Spin Ball and Blaze used her fire powers to launch him at the drop ship. Sonic would break through the underside of the ship and land on a catwalk with Egg Pawns on it, a rather surprised look on his face. He'd then quickly get to work just trashing the interior of the dropship while outside Blaze would charge up a massive ball of fire before blasting it right at the ship. The fire shot hit the dropship and it exploded into a massive inferno.

Blaze used her fire to slow her descent to the ground as Tangle ran up to her saying "That was amazing!.."

She and Blaze looked into the air as Tangle asked "But is Sonic going to be alright?"

Blaze simply put her hands on her hips with a knowing grin "He will be."

That's when the blue Hedgehog came crashing down from the sky, still in his Spin Ball. He bounced off of the ground several times before rolling to a stop in front of Tangle and Blaze. He placed a hand onto the side of his head as he dizzly said _"ThAt WaS sO mUcH fUn YoU gUyS."_

Blaze reached down and helped Sonic up as Tangle asked "Is your life _always_ this exciting?"

Sonic smiled a little "If I can help it? Yeah!"

Blaze just rolled her eyes as Sonic stood up and brushed down some of his now messed up quills "Right, so, introductions! Blaze, this is Tangle, she's a local."

He put a hand on the Cat's shoulder and she'd place a hand on top of his hand "Tangle, this is Blaze. She's a princess from another dimension and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds. They're like Chaos Emeralds, but fiery... Also kinda rectangular too."

Blaze just rolled her eyes again as she chuckled while Sonic took his hand off of her. Tangle meanwhile had a shocked expression before she just smiled "Haha, o- okay."

Tangle grabbed ahold of Blaze's hand as she said "Thanks for saving my home, your highness."

Blaze smiled at her "You are welcome, and please, just call me Blaze."

Sonic brought his arms behind his head and looked over to Blaze "I'm always happy to see you, but what's the occasion?"

She grew a more serious expression at that "I felt the will of the Sol Emeralds. I've come to prevent a terrible event on your world."

Sonic chuckled dryly "Ha! No offense, but you're quite a few months late."

It kind of hurt to think that it took her this long to get here. He had never really thought that she should've appeared during the war in the first place though. After Sonic said that, Blaze looked shocked "What do you mean?"

He shrugged "Eggman locked me up and took over the world."

"WHAT?!"

"S'cool. My friends busted me out and we kicked his butt."

Tangle then thought of something "Hold on, you said thae left over Badniks are getting organized, right?"

Sonic nodded "Yeah, so far it doesn't seem like it's Eggman though..."

"Doesn't matter. The point is, they're getting dangerous. What if the war was just the beginning? What if there's something even worse on the way?"

Blaze placed a hand on her chin, so too did Sonic, and she said "The Sol Emeralds are not... Chatty... If they directed me here, it was for a purpose."

She smiled a little "And I will remain here until that purpose is made clear."

Sonic gave her some finger guns "I know I can count on you."

The Cat turned her attention to Tangle "But first, many parts of your village are burning, I will do what I can to calm the flames. Show me where you need me."

Tangle still couldn't believe she was talking to someone with fire powers at this point "You are amazing, follow me!"

Blaze looked over to Sonic and smiled at him a little "I'll leave the hunt for the ringleader to you for now!"

Tangle spun around and jumped up while she said "Bye Sonic! Thanks for everything!"

Sonic waved "Ciao!"

He then sighed a little and rubbed his head "Phew! Man, after all that I need a breather..."

He stood up right and took in a deep breath, then the second after he finished it he readied himself to speed off "That'll do!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, a mother Kangaroo stepped outside and approached her son "It's late, it's time to come in."

The Kangaroo child she was addressing was sitting on the ground, crying due to his wagon's wheel having broken off "Buh- Buh- But it's busted! I c- c- can't carry it inside!"

The mother sighed a little and reached down to help her son. But across from in a different building, a man was working on a little spring based robot when he heard the child cry out his woes. He set the unfinished robot down before standing up and walking over to the window and using his first finger and his thumb to push apart segments of the blindes covering the window "Oh-ho-ho... Don't you worry little one."

He smiled wide "I'll fix your little red wagon."

He brought a hand up to his red mustache as he said "Soon, I'll be fixing _everything_!"

Far, far away from either Sonic or the man, Bishop sat alone in his office watching the staticy live feed of a robot watching the battle Sonic, Blaze, and Tangle had just gone through. Bishop grumbled to himself and put his head in his hands "Why did I have to be given the incompetent ones?"

Just then, is cell phone began to ring. Bishop looked over to the device and saw that the person calling him on this special phone that was gifted to him by the King was the Pawn. He sighed "Case in point."

He picked up the phone and answered it "What do you want?"

The Pawn snickered on the other end "I'm so glad you're happy to see me!"

Bishop just rolled his eyes before asking once more "What do you _want_?"

"Nothing much, just following through with the plan _you _made. You know, the one that starts with me going radio-silent."

Reaching over to a nearby button, Bishop would press it and cause the screen in front of him to change to a static picture of the Eggman Recovery Effort's headquarters "You're going to move in?"

"Yeah, just gotta hope that I can make it out safely."

"Good, I'll be here for when you fail."

"Alright, thanks."

With that, the call ended and Bishop set the phone down so he could return to grumbling "Now I'm left with more idiots, only their robots that can't emote and can't be _'not an idiot'_ once and a while!"

He brought his fingers up to the sides of his head and began to rub in annoyance "Rough and Tumble have also been incarcerated, meaning I have no muscle. With Pawn going undercover, I can't even rely on his skills..."

Bishop reclined into his chair "Then I guess there's only one thing to do... Wait."

With that, Bishop reached over to a nearby remote and used it to turn the screen from that static picture to live television. With any hope, his plan would work and the King wouldn't punish him for it failing. But, that would be the Bishop's problem, and his alone. Because, far off in the United Federations, the Pawn approached the Eggman Recovery Effort's headquarters. The guards didn't stop him, no one in the building's lobby batted an eye at him, not even the receptionist looked surprised to see him. The Pawn stopped in front of the reception desk and simply said "I've got a meeting with Amy Rose."

The receptionist looked over to their computer screen and checked the scheduled meetings for Amy. Most were for school children, others were government officials, one was for a certain black Hedgehog, and the one she needed to find was the Pawn's meeting. The receptionist looked back over to him "Miss Rose is in her office, down the right hall."

He smiled at them "Thank you."

The Pawn then began to head down the hall that the receptionist told him to head down. At the end of it was Amy's office, he opened the door, stepped in, and the pink Hedgehog looked over to him "Oh! Heh, kinda forgot you were coming."

He just waved his hand a little "I understand, you're busy with a lot of stuff."

She nodded "That is true... I don't think I was ever told your name though."

The skunk smiled "My name is, _Geoffrey Saint John_... And I know who's controlling Eggman's Badniks."


	5. Base Busting

"Are.. Are you sure that's right Geoffrey?"

Geoffrey Saint John, AKA: The Pawn, nodded and smiled at Amy "Yes, I am. Once more, I will admit that saying something to the affect of _'I know who's controlling Eggman's Badniks'_ is a bit of misnomer, as I only know where this person is holding up."

Amy nodded as well, still quite confused by all of this "Alright... But.. Why is it you've only brought this up _now_?"

He shifted a little in his seat and chuckled dryly "Well... To put it quite honestly, I wasn't in any position to speak out against him. I... Stumbled across his operation back when I was a scavenger, which was a month or so ago... I ran across his base one day and... Well... I ran. Turns out he tracked me back home and... One thing lead to another and he held my girlfriend, Hershey, hostage... Only recently did he trust me enough to let tell me she's safe and that he has no intention to kill her... Or roboticize her.."

Her heart twinged with empathy. She felt bad for him "I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that Geoffrey! I- I'll get into contact with an operative and have them go to this... _Bishop's_ base and stop this once and for all... Just.. As soon as-"

"As soon as I tell you where the base is, should've done that sonner, shouldn't I?"

He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through the fur on the top of his head as he sighed and said "I'm going to need something to write it down on."

Amy reached over to a nearby tablet and handed it over to Geoffrey. He opened up a little app that'd let him write down the location of the Bishop's base. Upon finishing it and handing it back to Amy, she'd look at it and raise an eyebrow in slight surprise "It's all the way out there? No wonder we haven't found it..."

He nodded "Yeah, but it is rather obvious of a place to take control of the Badniks from. After all, it's an old factory for them."

Amy would then set the tablet down before looking back over to Geoffrey "Yes... Thank you for all of this Geoffrey.. I'll be giving you something as a reward for all of this."

Geoffrey smiled once more "There's no need for that... He's done so much to harm me and Hershey, I'm just glad he's going to get what he deserves."

The hedgehog began to stand and so did Geoffrey, and as they did Amy said "I'm sure you do, but still, thank you again. You've done a great deal in helping the Eggman Recovery Effort keep people safe."

He held out his hand "It's no problem. Who wouldn't want to keep the world safe when you live on it too?"

She took his hand and they shook on it as Amy simply smiled at him. After that he'd leave and she'd sit down to get into contact with any ERE operative that wasn't busy at that moment. She searched and searched but found nothing. Knuckles? He didn't count anymore. Gadget? No one's heard from him since he left the Resistance after the war. Sally? She's busy with The Green Hill City operation. Literally _any_ of the Chaotix? Turns out post-war time has been the best business time for their organization.

Amy rubbed her eyes before returning to the search, but luck was on her side this time as she found someone who had next to nothing going on at that moment. She smiled a little and began to type up the message she needed to send him.

Meanwhile, Sonic was back at his camp sitting in his tent. He scratched the side of his head and thought to himself _"Hate road bumps. Sure, this is more of a figurative brick wall, but still. The only thing I know is that someone's in control of Eggman's robots now, and maybe, just maybe, that same person will cause some sort of... Thing, that forced the Sol Emeralds to bring Blaze over here.."_

But then, suddenly, his Miles-Mini Universal Communicator beeped. Sonic leaned back a little and picked up the device to see who's trying to message him. He just smiled and accepted the call. He was almost immediately met by the sound of a girl saying "Sup, idiot."

Sonic rolled his eyes and smirked a little "I'm starting to notice a pattern when it comes to getting contacted by my family on this thing."

_Sonia the Hedgehog_ raised an eyebrow but didn't let her smile leave her face "How so?"

He just shrugged "They always seem to want to talk when I'm in the middle of something."

She chuckled "Isn't that the case for most things?"

Sonic nodded before asking "So, where are you talking to me from?"

"Uh, Spagonia. Specifically, I'm in Central Spagonia."

He whistled a little "Wow, you're going to that _fancy_ fashion school."

She nodded "Oh yeah, and uh, don't take it the wrong way, but I _might've_ used the fact I was related to you to get into the school just a little easier.."

Sonic shook his head a little "No need to worry, Manic already used that to get a girlfriend a few years back."

Then suddenly, Sonic could hear _Manic the Hedgehog's_ voice come from above Sonia, obviously from the second floor "And a boyfriend!"

The blue hedgehog furrowed his brow "I don't remember that.."

He just shook his head a little and asked "So Manic's there too?"

Sonia shrugged "Kinda, he's mostly scoping out stuff. He's not sure what he wants to do yet."

Sonic cocked his head to the side "What do you mean by _'scoping out stuff'_?"

"Manic's words, not mine. Basically, he's decided to crash at my place for a bit, listen to whatever I have to tell him about my school stuff, then do his own research online."

The blue hedgehog nodded a little "Uh-huh..."

Then, suddenly, Sonia waved her hand a little "Nevermind all that, what's on your mind dude."

Sonic raised an eyebrow in confusion "What do you mean?"

She just looked at him "Come on, I'm your sister, your triplet, I know when something's on your mind. Usually, whenever you're not talking to someone, you look away from their face and off to the side when that happens."

He wanted to protest, but he knew she was right. He sighed "Yeah, alright, you got me."

"Once again, what's on your mind?"

Sonic brought a hand up to the back of his head and scratched a little "I.. Well, recently, I've been trying to figure out what's going on with Eggman's robots."

"And it hasn't been going well?"

He shrugged "Kinda? I mean, I've saved some cities from Badnik attacks with some help from my friends, but the only way to make sure everyone's safe is to figure out who's organizing them and stop them."

"Have you tried asking your friends for help?"

Sonic rested his head on one of his palms while he held up the MMUC with the other "They can only do so much. They've got stuff they still need to do. Knux wants to wrap up his duties on the surface so he get back to Angel Island, Amy's taken the role of leading the ERE to heart, Tails wants to go solo for a little while longer, and everybody else is doing their own stuff too."

Sonia nodded "Alright... That's a bit of a problem."

Sonic chuckled and took his head off of his palm "You can say that again. Before you called I had been thinking about how I had reached a road bump in all of this."

After he finished, a strange glow shown through the back of his tent and onto the surface of the MMUC. Raising an eyebrow he asked "Do you see-"

"A weird glow from outside of your tent, yeah."

Sonic turned and looked over his shoulder and saw a glow that was slowly growing larger. No, the glow wasn't growing larger, it was getting closer. He knew exactly who it was, with a grin, Sonic turned to look at Sonia again "Gotta go, time for me to talk to an associate of mine."

With that, he turned off the device and stood up to leave the tent. Once he did, he saw that the source of the glow was now hovering over the ground in front of him "Did you seriously call me an _associate_?"

_Silver the Hedgehog_ looked at Sonic with an obviously perplexed look on his face. Sonic just grinned a little wider "What else do I call you? Sonia doesn't quite know you're from the future."

The white hedgehog looked at Sonic a moment "...Who's Sonia?"

"Exactly."

Sonic crossed his arms over his chest "So, why'd you stop by?"

Silver set down on the ground and his glowing cyan aura disappeared "Well, Amy told me to find you as quick as I could. She has some intel on who's behind these Badnik attacks."

The blue hedgehog nodded "So this is an ERE meeting, alright, what does Amy have? What do you have to tell me?"

Using his telekinetic powers, Silver picked up random odds and ends that were lying on the ground to begin constructing a map of the land they were on as he said "Apparently someone that used to work for whoever's behind all of this told her where they're operating from."

He finished his all natural map and used his powers to circle a very specific area on it "She says she was told it'd be there. But that's about it."

Sonic inspected the map, turns out if was east of where they were. He then said "Huh, not that far from here. For me at least. And I think there's an old Eggman base there too.. Which makes sense now that I think about it."

Silver nodded "Yeah, she told me that I should try and convince you to come wit-"

It was only then did Silver realize Sonic had sped off towards the location of interest. Probably in the blink of an eye too. Quickly levitating himself into the air, Silver would yell out to nobody "H- Hey! Wait for me!"

Before flying off after Sonic. Elsewhere, the blue hedgehog broke the sound barrier and continued towards the place Silver had showed him. After roughly another fifteen seconds, he'd arrive on the top of a rocky hill that overlooked a large metal pyramid. It had the obvious markings of a wartime built Eggman Empire base. Red lights, a large fence that surrounded the entire place, and a large antenna on top of it. How was it the ERE hadn't already got to dismantling this place? Looking around, Sonic saw Badniks patrolling the perimeter of the pyramid "They haven't noticed me yet, heh, good."

He then sped forwards and leaped up and over the fence and land on the other side. Standing up right and dusting off some dirt he'd kicked up upon landing, Sonic glanced around and saw no one had noticed him yet. He then whistled for their attention and the Badniks in their area turned to look over to him, they aimed their blaster arms at him, and he grinned "Good luck boys, _'Priority One: Hedgehog'_, is prepared for this."

They fired at him, but he quickly sped forwards and those shots were all for nothing. Most of these Badniks all happened to be bunched up in front of him, or more accurately, in front of the pyramid's entrance. At high speeds, Sonic Spin Attacked into one of the robots and pinballed himself between several of the scrunched up robots. Once he came to the end of the chained attack, he leaped up into the air and saw an Egg Hammer stomping into battle "Jeez, what's with this dude and the Egg Hammers?"

He then Homing Attacked to the larger robot, but it seemed to be the smarter of the Hammers he's fought recently as it managed to block him and force him back to the ground. It raised its hammer into the air and was about to bring it down, but Sonic was quick to leap up and land on the robot's torso. After that, he sped all over its body and it was incapable of doing anything about it. The Egg Hammer tried to claw at Sonic but just couldn't stop him, after a moment of speeding around he'd run over to its left arm and use it as a base to leap back towards its chest and Spin Attack right through it. The robot collapsed behind him as Sonic drifted and realined himself with the entrance of the base.

When he did he saw that there was a large gas tank next to the path to the entrance. Sonic grinned and sped forwards, as he did he reached out and picked up one of the robots before jumping up and throwing it at the gas tank. With that, he got even faster and sped past the tank before the Egg Pawn hit the tank and caused an chain reaction explosion. As that fireball erupted behind him, Sonic lunged forwards, rolled, and slid underneath the closing metal door of the pyramid's entrance. On the other side, he jumped up and landed on his feet while saying "Way too slow! Next time,"

He turned around and put a hand next to his mouth "Be sure to step up the bots!"

Sure, whoever was in here probably didn't hear him, not over the siren he'd just realized was going off. But still. He walked forwards a little and was immediately met by the interior defenses. What were they? Very simple stuff like plasma turrets that came out of the floor and Spinas that flew out of circular holes in the walls. Sonic smirked before front flipping over one of the plasma bolts and beginning to run up one of the side of the walls. With the turrets now unable to fire at him, Sonic just had to deal with the Spinas. The hedgehog jumped up and kicked one of the robots into a wall and when he landed he boosted forwards and through the Spinas. Running underneath another sliding door, Sonic would skid to a stop as the door closed.

But then, he saw a large Spina fly up to him "Ooh! Wow! You're a big one!"

Its twin blades spun fast around its body as electricity crackled around it. He was about to attack it, when he heard a very familiar sound and ducked down right before a cyan colored Psychic Blade cut through the Spina and split it in half. When the bits of the robots fell to the ground, Sonic stood up and saw Silver standing not far from behind the once intact robot "Mind if I _cut in_?"

Sonic put his hands on his hips "Been waiting a long time to use that?"

Silver chuckled and rubbed the back of his head "Y- Yeah, just a little."

The blue hedgehog would then begin to approach the other as he asked "So how'd ya' get in here? The way I got in closed up behind me."

Silver pointed with his thumb to a pipe that looked like a large sphere had been forced through it. Sonic winced a little "Yikes."

The white hedgehog nodded "Yeah.."

With that, the two began to walk down the hallway they were both in. As they did Sonic put his hands behind his head and asked "So what are you doing back here in the past?"

Silver looked over to Sonic and looked like he was going to say something, but hesitated and didn't. He rubbed his arm with his hand and said "W- Well... I came back because defeating Eggman _didn't_ save the future."

The blue hedgehog's eyes went wide a little "Oh.. Huh... That's a bit of a mood killer."

He took his hands away from the back of his head as he sighed "Okay, what happened this time?"

Silver was silent a moment to gather his thoughts before saying "When I left my time the Eggman Empire ruled over everything. Eggman had turned himself into a single centralized AI that made himself practically immortal. A clone of Infinite forced everyone into line, and so too did the Egg Generals. Everyone choked on polluted air... No one dared speak about you or the rest of the Resistance and Hedgehogs were forced to live in tightly controlled and monitored communities. But when I went back, the Eggman Empire was gone.. But so was _everyone else_. There was nothing left. No people, no animals, no machinery.. Only water and sparse metallic plant life."

Sonic winced a little "Well.. That's... Eerie."

Silver looked over to him "I know, right? So I came right back to find out what happened."

The blue hedgehog nodded "Which is why you joined up with the ERE, to keep an eye on things."

Silver nodded as well "Exactly."

Then, suddenly, they both heard the strange sound of someone scuffling around come from the end of the hallway up ahead of them. They both ran forwards and past a turn the corner of the hallway, once there, they both saw the tip of a cream colored tail disappear into a vent above them. Sonic was about to ask something, when he saw that Silver had a massive smile on his face. The blue hedgehog raised an eyebrow and said "Silver, dude? You okay?"

The white hedgehog looked over to him and said excitedly "That must've been the legendary Guardian Angel!"

Sonic blinked a few times "..The Legendary _what now_?"

Silver's glee never left his face, body, or soul "How do you not know about the Guardian Angel?!"

"I spent, what, a year in a small cell in_ space_. I missed a few things."

The white hedgehog chuckled "Oh, right! You missed most of the war."

He began to approach the door that had blocked their way as he continued "Multiple units in the Resistance reported a mysterious person who would turn the tide of battle, but never joined the army."

He took a telekinetic grip on the door "Whoever it was saved my life more than once! They must be here to help us again!"

Sonic smiled a little as Silver forced the door open "Nice, would love to meet them. Maybe you'll even get an autograph too."

They began to walk through the doorway as Silver looked at him excitedly "Do you really think so?!"

Sonic just patted his shoulder "We can talk about this later, come on dude."

Once they walked through, they both saw that an elevator shaft was the only thing they were met with. Sonic motioned to it "You wanna go first mister _'I can fly with my mind'_?"

Silver shrugged before surrounding himself with his aura and beginning to levitate down the elevator shaft. As he did that, Sonic took a look over to a nearby plaque that had "TO PRISON LEVEL" written on it. After that, Sonic jumped down the shaft and fell quite a few feet. He used a little lip the wall above the exit to the shaft to slingshot himself out of it and he landed next to the waiting white hedgehog. Sonic stood up and dusted himself off "We're quite a ways down now, wonder if Eggman had wanted to stuff some of the Resistance leaders in here at some point."

The white hedgehog just shrugged and they both walked down the grey and empty prison level of the base. That's when Silver remembered something "Oh! I just remembered, Amy's informant said that he was kept silent by the person behind all of this by keeping his girlfriend hostage. So, she asked us to keep an eye out for her."

Sonic nodded "You got it."

That's when they heard the sound of a laser Wispon being fired nearby. They both ran forwards, or in Silver's case, flew forwards, and turned another corner to see a cream colored wolf using a Wispon that looked exactly like the one Tails had used back when Sonic first ran into him again. What the wolf was firing at was a metal door that lead into a cell that looked to be empty. Upon seeing the wolf, Silver's eyes and smile went wide once again. He gasped a little began to fly towards the other Mobian "That must be her! Hey! Guardian Angel!"

But all he got in reaction was a shocked face that was hidden by the white mask she had on. Quickly, the wolf leaped up and used a green Wisp power to float up into the vent above her, despite the fact she had been using the cyan Wisp power before. As that happened Silver yelled out "No! Wait!"

He touched down on the ground again and his aura disappeared "I... I don't understand. We're all on the same side.. I'm a big fan..."

He was genuinely hurt by her reaction. He wrapped his arms around himself as he stared up at the vent she had gone to hide in, at the same time, Sonic approached his friend "Silver... You said she never joined the Resistance, that she never interacted with anyone, right?"

The blue hedgehog also looked up at the vent as Silver said "Well... Y- Yeah, I guess. So?"

Sonic looked back over to Silver "So she obviously prefers to work solo, for whatever reason. Not everyone likes being part of the crowd."

Silver nodded a little "I see... I guess I've been so starved for interaction for so long I never considered _wanting_ to be left alone."

Unknowingly to them, the wolf peered out from inside of the vent as Sonic cupped his hands around his mouth "Yo! Sorry for coming on so strong. I'm Sonic and the guy that's got a _huge_ celebrity crush on you is Silver. We appreciate your help. We'd like to help you too!"

Then suddenly, from inside of the vent, the wolf could feel the insides of her black jacket begin to move around and flutter before the various Wisps that had once been inside of small capsules bursted out and flew straight to Sonic. The blue hedgehog smiled wide as Silver leaped back in shock. Sonic held out his hands as he exclaimed "Whoa! Hahaha! Hey guys! I _thought_ I saw some Wisp powers going off!"

The Wisps all flew around him babbling in their alien language happily as Sonic gave each of them pets and pats. Sonic glanced over to Silver and could tell he was a little confused by all of this "I saved their planet from Eggman a while back, he had this whole thing with an interstellar amusement park. Long story too, I guess that left an impression.. I think you were there."

Silver just shrugged before they both heard the sound of the Guardian Angel dropping from the vent and landing on the floor in front of them. They both turned their attention to her as she took off her white mask and said in a soft, strangely comforting, voice "Whisper."

True to what she said, the word was whispered out of her mouth. Sonic grinned "Cool."

Silver, meanwhile, leaned in close to Sonic and brought a hand up to his mouth as he whispered to the other "Okay.. But why?"

Sonic rolled his eyes "No genius. Whisper is her _name_."

Whisper nodded a little as Silver dropped his hand to his side "Oh.. Right.."

That's when they heard a tapping at the glass that acted as the only way to look into the cell Whisper had been trying to get into. Everyone turned their attention to the glass and the sight of a black furred cat wearing the to be expected orange prison jumpsuit standing behind the glass came into their view "Hey, still stuck in here!"

Silver and Sonic looked at each other before the white hedgehog said "That must be Hershey, which means we've gotta help her."

Sonic motioned to the metal door Whisper had once been blasting at "Care to get the door then?"

The white hedgehog raised his hands up and his cyan aura surrounded them. Meanwhile, Whisper watched on in slight surprise while Sonic just enjoyed seeing the wolf's reaction to what was about to come. Holding his hands out, Silver focused and took ahold of the door before forcing it open with a loud metallic screech. Hershey would then rush out of the cell and stop in front of the group "Thank you! Did-"

Silver was quick to intervene "Yes, Geoffrey Saint John did send us. I'm Silver and this is Sonic and Whisper, I'm here on behalf of the Eggman Recovery Effort while those two are here just.. Doing their thing."

Sonic smirked a little "Is that sort of speech apart of your ERE training?"

Hershey and Silver both ignored him. The cat herself asked "Is Geoffrey here?"

The white hedgehog shook his head "No, but we can take you back to him, and to someplace safe."

Sonic was quick to step in "But before that, we need to find whoever's behind Eggman's robots and your kidnapping."

Hershey grit her teeth "Bishop. That dirty bag of worms. He should be hiding deep in the bowles of this place like _the rat_ he is."

That's when Whisper seemed to perk up. Sonic and Silver looked over to her as she stepped forwards a little, but the blue hedgehog was the one to ask "Do you know where that might be?"

She nodded and Sonic looked over to Hershey "Do you think you can shimmy up an elevator shaft by yourself?"

Silver looked over to Sonic "Shouldn't we help her outside?"

He nodded 'Yeah, probably, but we can't afford to possibly lose the chance to take in this Bishop guy."

Now it was Hershey's turn to quickly butt in "It's fine, before the war I was training to join G.U.N., I can get out of here just fine."

Silver nodded a little "Alright, just.. Stay safe."

Sonic nodded as well "And you might have to wait for us, the way I came in is closed and Silver's way in is... Less than ideal."

Hershey smiled "Thank you for the concern. Now then, go give Bishop what he deserves."

With that, she began to jog towards the elevator shaft the two hedgehogs had dropped down to get to the prison level. As she did that, Whisper approached the vent she had used to hide in and pointed to it "Here."

Sonic frowned a little as he looked at the vent "Speaking of less than ideal."

Silver nodded in agreement "Yeah, we're not so good with vent crawling like you."

That's when the blue hedgehog snapped his fingers "But, I think I know a way to make things easier."

He looked over to the cyan Wisp and asked "I'm gonna assume that these Wisps are your buddies Whisper, which means I should probably ask you if you'd be alright with me fusing with this guy before doing another."

Whisper just nodded and Sonic smiled "Sweet, come on dude."

Him and the Wisp approached the vent as the other Wisps returned to their capsules within Whisper's jacket. Sonic looked back over to the Wisp and nodded. He held out his hand and the alien touched it. With that, Sonic's body glowed a bright cyan before he blasted upwards and ricocheted all the way through the vent and deep into the base, hopefully in the right direction. After that, Whisper jumped up into the vent and Silver levitated after her. Turns out Sonic did go the right way, as they basically followed the trail of Hyper-Go-On Energy he left behind. By the time Whisper and Silver made it out of the vent, Sonic and the cyan Wisp had been standing around for a solid minute or so. Upon seeing his friends, Sonic smirked "Too you two long enough. What held you up? A quick pit stop for some smo-"

Silver raised up his hand "Stop!"

Sonic simply grinned, but then realized this was serious. He turned around and saw a large screen come out of a slit in the ceiling in front of them. It turned on and a Mobian bathed in dark blues and blacks appeared before them. He was sitting in a chair in some circular room, this had to be Bishop. The Mobian was silent a moment before saying "Sonic, Silver, and the Guardian Angel Whisper... A certain mad man in a red jacket would call this a blessing, I'm calling this a pain."

The blue hedgehog put his hands on his hips "Depending on what's up Egghead would call me that too."

The Bishop just rolled his eyes "Nonetheless. You've come here to stop me, all for various reasons, I assume. After all, Whisper here never worked with the Resistance or ERE. I'll let you try."

"Bold words for an Eggman wannabe."

Bishop chuckled a little "Wannabe? No... I cannot measure up to him. I only hope to make sure the world is right for when he comes back, I only wish for people to fear him once again."

Sonic took his hands off of his hips and punched his fist into his palm "Well you're gonna have to try a lot harder than that, right now, they're mostly scared by the robots and not Egghead himself. How's about you just turn yourself in and all of this can be over with?"

The Bishop shook his head "Oh no, we can't give up now. I've been preparing for this for ages. Long live the Remnants, hail the Eggman Empire."

With that, the screen shut off and returned to its hiding place before the door in front of them opened up to reveal a large empty space. But before they had anytime to generally react to any of this, the wall behind them began to close in forcing them out into the area, which now looked more like an arena. Then, suddenly, the center of the arena opened up and a platform began to rise up. The machine that stood on the platform had the legs of Omega, a large square body very reminiscent of Omega, a head design exactly like Gamma's but much larger, its arms were massive and looked like jackhammers with spikes on its ends, it had massive tank turrets strapped to the top of its square shoulders, slits all over its torso for, presumably, more weaponry, the robot itself was colored light blue and black while its "eyes" were a dark red, and on its chest was a massive white "E-107: THETA".

Sonic grit his teeth, Silver lifted up off of the ground, and Whisper brought her mask over her face before raising up her Wispon. The massive E-100 robot, which was roughly the size of the Death Egg Robot, stomped one of its massive feet as Badniks flowed into the arena through hatches in the ceiling and walls. Sonic's expresion grew a little more worried than it had been before "This.. Is not good."


	6. The Bishop

**Before we get back into the story I just wanna say thank you for getting this story over 600 views! Also, as a quick note, I'm going to be trying to increase the size of the chapters as this goes on, if you couldn't tell, and I'll be messing around with spacing once again, still figuring stuff out.**

**Thank you to ****The Sensational SpiderDom321 for helping me out with a few things in this chapter, it meant a lot to me.**

**Anyways, enjoy, and be sure to leave a review/fav if you'd like!**

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_E-107 Theta_ lifted its massive feet and stomped towards the three heroes Sonic, Silver, and Whisper. The white hedgehog glanced over to Sonic as he kept himself elevated in the air with his telekinesis "S- Sonic? What do we do?"

There was obvious worry in Silver's voice, and all Sonic could say was "Move!"

Right before he quickly sped off to the right. Silver reacted almost as quickly and used his telekinesis to pick up Whisper and move themselves out of the way of the fire of one of the tank turrets mounted onto Theta's shoulders. The explosion from the attack rocked the metal chamber/arena they were in.

The Badniks that came out of holes in the ceiling continued to flow downwards, making things in here just that much more complicated than before. The Spinas that were apart of the robots that came to fight alongside with Theta came in front of Sonic, but the blue hedgehog made quick work of them by Spin Attacking through them with ease.

Elsewhere, Silver set Whisper down and landed on the ground himself. Theta looked over to Sonic, who was to its left, then to Silver and Whisper, who were to its left. But before it could do anything, Whisper hoisted up her Wispon and blasted its head with the powers from a Burst Wisp.

An explosion struck just above its right "eye" but all that was provoked out of the E-100 robot by the attack was it rearing its arm back and thrusting it down towards them.

Whisper leaded up and used the Hover Wisp power to lift herself up into the air while Silver leaped off to the side in the opposite direction. The jackhammer like arm of Theta struck the ground with enough force to make the metal groan and the room to shudder. Now off in a secluded enough space, Whisper took aim at the arm joint of Theta and fired a blast of an Asteroid Wisp at it.

Sadly, that shot would never connect as it instead struck a Spina that suddenly sped past. Whether or not it was intentional is up in the air. Sonic front flipped over an Egg Pawn and as he came back down to the ground he stuck out his leg and hit another Egg Pawn's head with the back of his heel, caving the robot's head in.

Once on the ground, he quickly ducked down to dodge a punch from another Egg Pawn. He then quickly spun around and extended one of his legs to Spin Kick the Egg Pawns around him right off balance and onto their backs. With that, he quickly jumped to the side and Spin Dashed in a circle and right through the center of the Pawns who were trying to recover from the previous attack.

Theta looked over to Sonic and pointed its left arm at him, then, a part of it split open and a cylindrical object with slits in it slid out from between the prongs of the jackhammer "hand" before electricity blasted out of it and right at Sonic. The blue hedgehog jumped back in shock "WHOA!"

He attempted to scramble away before running into another gathering of robots. Once again, he slid to a stop before glancing up to Theta and saw that the electrical weapon was still pointed at him and it was still primed for another attack. Sonic stepped back a little and clenched his hands into fists "Silver! We need to finish off the little ones so we can focus on the big guy!"

Silver, who was currently crunching a bunch of Badniks into a ball, looked over to Sonic and took on a shocked expression upon realizing what situation Sonic was in "R- Right!"

He then threw the ball at a grouping of robots before flying over to Sonic "Come at me!"

Right as a bolt of electricity struck at the spot Sonic was, the blue hedgehog leaped up in his Spin Ball and Silver grabbed him with his telekinesis and threw him right through the Egg Pawns that had blocked his path before then. With that, Silver would launch him through a group of Spinas before throwing Sonic up into the air so that the hedgehog could try to attack Theta, only for him to be smacked out of the air by the E-100 robot's jackhammer hand and right into a wall.

Whisper, meanwhile, had no clue what the others were doing. She was to focused on fighting Theta, which wasn't going well. Either every attack was intercepted by a Badnik, or it just plain missed. At this point, she was fighting more out of anger of how ineffective her shots were than staying safe. She fired shot after shot wildy at Theta, but most shots missed like usual.

One of those missed shots flew right past Silver's face and the white hedgehog stopped in mid flight to not get hit "**_WHAO_**! Whisper! Be careful!"

She looked up at him with an apologetic face hidden behind her mask, but when she looked up at him, she realized something. She could attack Theta from a higher advantage point. Looking behind her, she saw a ladder leading up to some sort of observation platform. Quickly, Whisper ran up to the ladder and began to climb it as Sonic and Silver dealt with the remaining Badniks.

Once up on the platform, Whisper held up her Wispon and aimed it at the back of Theta's head. Swapping to the power of a Spike Wisp, she steadied her aim and fired. But the shot simply struck the back of Theta's head and ricocheted upwards and into the ceiling. The robot turned to face Whisper, then, in an almost split second, it fired one of its tank turrets at her and she leaped off of the platform as an explosion caused debris to fall after her.

Whisper hit the ground hard and she dropped her Wispon out of her reach. Metal crashed down around her and a few remaining Badniks began to approach her while Theta kept its attention trained on her. She desperately reached for the Wispon, but some of the metal kept her pinned and kept her reach just an inch to short to grab the Wispon.

As Theta aimed its electrical weapon at her, Sonic and Silver both realized the trouble the wolf was in. So, Sonic sped up the side of a wall and Homing Attacked into Theta's chest. As he fell back towards the ground, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out "You look like a rip off of Omega and an Egg Titan!"

The E-100 robot turned its attention away from Whisper and back towards Sonic while Silver flew over to her and took out the Badniks that were surrounding her with his telekinesis. Landing on the ground in front of her, the Wisps that had come out of their capsules to try and defend Whisper thanked Silver in their alien language while Silver lifted the metal on Whisper up into the air.

As he lifted the metal off of her he said "It's okay if you prefer to work alone,"

He tossed the metal he was holding off to the side and continued "But it looks to me like you've put together quite a team."

He motioned with one hand to the Wisps as Whisper was able to stand "And I'd be proud to be a part of it."

Silver held out his hand and helped Whisper up to her feet as she smiled shyly, a little blush hidden behind the mask that was no longer covering her face, but now resting against the side of her head "...Maybe.."

The white hedgehog smiled at her before Sonic suddenly sped over "Hey, I'm glad that you two are breaking down some emotional and psychological walls together and forming a bond that will withstand the tests of time, but we still got a _big _problem!"

Sonic pointed to Theta and it became clear to Silver and Whisper that Sonic had taken care of the remaining Badniks while the wolf was being freed from the metal debris. Theta turned to face the heroes completely as its computer mind took note of the fact that it had no Badniks backing it up anymore. A subroutine was disabled upon that realization, another subroutine was enabled, and Theta unlocked it's full potential.

Theta widened its stance and raised its arms up a little. Another electrical weapon came out of the jackhammer hand that didn't have one, the slits in the sides of its body opened up and various weapons protruded out of them. Missile launchers, gatling guns, plasma weapons, and more electrical weapons all came out of the slits. Theta's shoulders let out a metallic groan as they spread out a little. Then, its head split in half and the two halves slid off to the side and lowered down into the spaces left open by the now widened shoulders. With the head split open, a large plasma cannon lifted up and out of the new opening, pointed directly at the trio.

Silver stepped back a little "S- Sonic, I didn't like our situation before, b- but I definitely don't like it now!"

Sonic nodded "Yeah... This is a little bit more complicated now."

Then, the large plasma cannon fired at them and they scattered. The green laser the weapon fired punctured a hole in the arena and sent metal flying all over the place. Sonic quickly regrouped with the rest and quickly said "We need to figure out some way to disable Theta's weapons, if we can't we're done for."

Silver looked at him "But how do we do that?!"

Before the blue hedgehog could say anything else, Theta turned to them and punched one of its electricity covered jackhammer hands at them. They all scattered again as the spikes of the jackhammer punctured the metal floor. When Sonic looked back over to the E-100 robot, he noticed that it was now stuck. Sonic was quick to yell out "Whisper! The elbow joint!"

She looked over to him in slight confusion, but then saw what he saw and was quick to aim her Wispon at it. She fired several Burst Wisp shots at the joint of the left arm, only for it to be cut short by Theta moving its other arm to blast lighting at her. Silver grabbed her with his telekinesis and moved her out of harms way as Sonic ran around the back of the robot right as it pulled itself free.

He skid to a stop next to the two as Whisper was set down by Silver. The blue hedgehog grit his teeth "I think I have an idea."

Theta turned to face them once again and it moved its arms up and to the side as it let the weapons in its sides fire at them. Silver and Whispers' eyes went wide as the white hedgehog said "You better do something quick Sonic!"

The blue hedgehog grinned a little "Silver, throw me."

Due to his panic, Silver only grabbed a small part of Sonic's body with his telekinesis before throwing him at the various guns, missiles, lasers, and electrical bolts that were being fired at the trio. Sonic quickly recovered from the lopsided toss and grabbed onto the side of a missile. He spun around on it like a pole before jumping up and landing on one above, he then leaped from missile to missile to begin approaching Theta. This all happened with the aid of his super speed so all Whisper and Silver saw was a blue streak speeding through the barrage of incoming projectiles.

Even still, Silver grabbed Whisper with his telekinesis once again to pull her and himself out of harms way. The projectiles struck the wall that was once behind them, but Theta turned to continue firing at them, forcing Silver to continue running from danger and Whisper floating alongside him. She fired a few Wispon shots at Theta while Sonic leaped off of one last missile. He flung himself high up into the air, charged up a Spin Attack, and Homing Attacked right into the side of Theta's large plasma cannon.

The robot staggered to the side from that attack, while at the sametime, Sonic kicked off of the cannon and flew towards one of the still flying missiles. He grabbed onto it, landed on the side of a wall, leaped off of it using the still active jet engine of the projectile and flew back towards Theta. As he passed the robot, Sonic aimed it and let go of the missile. It struck the side of Theta and exploded, causing the robot the stagger and pause in the firing of its smaller weaponry. That's when Sonic yelled out "Whisper! Go for that joint again!"

Silver set her down and the wolf took aim at the same joint again. She fired more Burst Wisp shots at it as Theta struggled to recover, its own weight was working against itself and making the struggle of recovering even harder. Then finally, one last Burst Wisp shot struck the joint of Theta's right elbow and it exploded right off. The arm fell to the floor and Theta staggered upright once again and turned to face Whisper as it charged up another blast from its plasma cannon.

This time, there was barely even a second to react. Sonic was just far enough away that he might not be able to make it, but Silver was close enough, he was just to panicked to react properly. Instead of using his telekinesis, he reached over and picked Whisper up before jumping away, the blast of the laser striking the floor propelling them towards Sonic.

The blue hedgehog's eyes went wide and he attempted to spread his arms out to catch them, but instead they hit him and he fell to his back. Silver groaned a little and Whisper had her hands over her face and her Wispon resting against her chest, pinned down by her elbows. When she took her hands off of her face, she realized that Silver was holding her. She began to get up as Sonic slid out from underneath Silver. Meanwhile, Theta turned its attention to them once again and fired both tank turrets at them.

Reacting almost immediately, Silver thrust his hand out and caught the bolts before throwing them back at Theta. Sonic grinned "Quick thinking Silver! Thanks!"

He sped forwards and Homing Attacked Theta's chest and bounced right off. It didn't do much, but at least there was a small dent now. In addition, Theta's attention was trained on Sonic and not on Whisper or Silver. The E-100 robot used a combination of trying to stomp on a speeding Sonic and firing bolts of electricity at him while Silver and Whisper finally got back up to their feet. The white hedgehog looked over to Whisper and asked "We have to do something about that thing's weapons! Especially that plasma cannon!"

Whisper looked around and eventually saw that pile of metal rubble she had been pinned underneath before, that's when she got an idea. She pointed to the debris then up at Theta's plasma cannon, but when she looked over to Silver again she saw he wasn't exactly following. So she reached down and grabbed some rubble laying down next to her and stuck it into the barrel of her Wispon. That's when Silver figured it out. He smiled and nodded before levitating back towards the debris with Whisper following him, being sure to take that chunk of metal out of her weapon as she did.

Meanwhile, Sonic quickly skid to a stop and stood between the split "toes" of Theta's foot before vaulting over it and speeding between its legs. As he came out the other side, Theta moved its remaining arm and fired more electrical bolts at the hedgehog. While Sonic dodged the bolts of electricity, Silver yelled out "Sonic! We need you to get Theta's cannon aimed at us and charging up to fire!"

Sonic didn't question it, he just nodded before quickly leaping up and Homing Attacking Theta's body. But instead of jumping off of him to attack again, Sonic sped up the front of its body and jumped up to stand on a part of its body to look it in one of its eyes "Yo! Knock off Omega! Bet you can't hit me with that laser!"

He then jumped off of Theta and landed in front of Silver and Whisper. Either Sonic's words actually got to Theta or it was just going to do it already, because it did begin to charge up a another laser shot. Silver watched intently as it charged up, waiting for the right moment, and when he saw it about to fire, he threw a large chunk of metal at the cannon and lodged it in its barrel. When Theta tried to fire, the cannon exploded and it staggered backwards. The explosion had enough force to knock one of the tank turrets off while the other was damaged enough by shrapnel to prevent it from being used again.

Theta's metal body creaked and groaned as it staggered around, it seemed like whatever acted as the robot's "brain" wasn't anywhere near its head, as it was still functional. But the robot recovered rather quickly and aimed its on remaining arm at Silver, which only caused Sonic to yell out "Time to finish this!"

Silver nodded, closed his eyes, and held out his hand. He focused hard, he ignored all other sounds and sense. He didn't know what he was doing, but he felt like this was the right thing to do. His cyan aura surrounded his body, but this time, it was bigger. Much bigger, and brighter. Theta could barely see at this point, but everyone else could see it. Bits of rubble that laid around Silver lifted up into the air, surrounded by a cyan aura. When Theta fired bolts of electricity at Silver, the white hedgehog simply opened his eyes and extend his fingers.

His eyes glowed a bright cyan, and the electrical bolts hit an invisible field that had surrounded Silver. Except, whenever they struck the field, it became slightly visible. A clear cyan colored fore field with various intricate markings similar to the ones on his gloves and boots appeared whenever the electricity struck his protective bubble. After a point Theta realized its attacks were useless, but when it stopped that let Silver levitate off of the ground and raise both his hands up.

Bright cyan lines and other intricate markings appeared all over his body as he continued to raise his hands up. He clenched those hands into fists as he opened his mouth and began to yell. It was deep, almost primal even, completely guttural. A cyan aura surrounded Theta as Silver's scream grew louder. Steam was beginning to rise off of the hedgehog's body and Sonic stared on in shock. He didn't know what to say, he didn't know what to do. Whisper was in the same boat as Sonic, only she was completely intimidated by the sight and was hiding behind the blue hero.

Theta began to be lifted up off of the ground as Silver's aura and lines began to glow brighter. Then, suddenly, everything that was glowing on Silver's body changed to a bright gold before it all disappeared and he dropped to the ground. Theta did the same, but it landed in a much more graceful way than Silver had as the E-100 robot landed on its feet while Silver landed on his side. Sonic was still shocked by everything, but that was quickly replaced by a realization of the fact Theta was preparing to attack again. The blue hedgehog looked over to the wolf behind him "Whisper, cover Silver! Also,"

He pointed to her jacket "Do you think I could get some help from them?"

Whisper nodded and opened up her jacket so the Wisps could come out of their capsules. Sonic ran off towards Theta with the Wisps following him and while Whisper ran over to Silver. She quickly knelt down next to the still unconscious hedgehog and did make sure he was still breathing. He was. Elsewhere, Sonic sped past Theta's left side as the robot used one of its remaining electrical weapons to try and shock him. Continuing to speed around, Sonic glanced around to all of the Wisps "Alright guys, how does helping me activate my Color Power Form sound?"

The Wisps all babbled a "yes" in their language and Sonic smiled "Nice."

He then took a sharp turn and speed in between Theta's legs, heading right for the wall in front of them. Jumping upwards, the Wisps would all fly towards Sonic and right as he hit the wall and jumped off of it, they fuzed with him and Sonic curled up into a Spin Ball. His fur turned bright white and a rainbow aura surrounded him as he blasted forwards in a Hyper-Go-On Energy enhanced Homing Attack that burst right through Theta's chest and came out its back, completely destroying the robot's power core. Sonic landed on the ground and the Wisps left his body while Theta fell over, seemingly on top of Sonic. Whisper had watched all of that and quickly stood up when she saw Theta fall over.

But then, Sonic leaped up through the hole in Theta's body and landed not far from Whisper and the Wisps flew over to her just as quickly. Exhausted by the fight, the Wisps went into their capsules and Sonic said with a smile "That was pretty fun!"

He looked over to Silver "Is he doing good though?"

Whisper looked over to him as well and crossed her arms over her chest "Don't know."

Just then, Silver shot upright and gasped "_**WHAO!**_"

Sonic blinked a few times in surprise "...Had a good nap dude?"

Silver grunted a little as he brought a hand up to his head "I feel like my head rammed into a steel wall and my brain exploded when I did."

The blue hedgehog extended his hand "Sounds about right, a bunch of weird lines appeared all over you and you were actually able to pick Theta up off of the ground maybe... A foot or two."

Silver grabbed Sonic's hand and the blue hedgehog helped him up to his feet as Silver said "I don't remember any of that."

Once the white hedgehog was up on his feet Sonic gave him a pat on his shoulder and said "Well, we can worry about that later. Right now, we gotta find Bishop."

"But how?"

Whisper then looked off to the side of the room and pointed to the hole the first blast of Theta's, now destroyed, plasma cannon "There."

They both looked over to the hole and saw it was yet another elevator shaft "Well, guess we're dropping down again."

Silver sighed a little and they all began to approach the hole. Sonic jumped down first, then Silver picked up Whisper with his telekinesis and they both levitated down wards. At the bottom they found a metal hallway with a long red carpet leading to a set of wooden double doors with gold handels. Sonic put his hands on his hips "Well, this was definitely one of Eggman's bases."

They then began to approach the door, small light fixtures on the walls illuminating the path. They all walked hesitantly and cautiously towards the door, and once they stood in front of it the group looked amongst each other, silently contemplating their options. They've come so far, turning back now could be dangerous and one of the worst decisions they could make. Sonic took in a deep breath and motioned to the door. He took hold of one of the gold door knobs and Silver grabbed the other as Whisper got down onto one knee, pulled her mask over her face, and aimed her Whispon at the door.

With that, the two hedgehogs opened the door and Whisper quickly scanned the room it lead to with the built in scope eyepieces in her mask. Nothing jumped out to attack them, there was no traps, nothing. Sonic and Silver peered into the room and they were met by the bright blue light that bathed the almost circular room from the large screen that sat in front of a leather chair and over a computer like control panel. The three entered into the room just as cautiously as they had approached the doors, and as they did the voice of Bishop came from the chair in front of them "I shouldn't be surprised you defeated Theta, but yet, I am."

Sonic and Silver began to split off to approach either side of the chair while the blue hedgehog said "If you worship Egghead the way you do then you probably shouldn't be surprised."

"Maybe you're right, either way, I must commend you on the fight. It was truly something."

The blue hedgehog looked over to Silver as they slowly began to approach the front of the chair "Uh.. Thanks."

Then, they stepped forwards and turned to face the front of this chair, only to find that no one was sitting in it, instead, a speaker was "Sorry about that, I know I can't take the three of you on without the element of surprise."

Before Sonic could even realize what he meant, they all heard the sound of an energy weapon being fired at the blue hedgehog. Luckily, Silver thrust his hand out and used his telekinesis to catch the plasma bolt in mid air, just inches away from Sonic's head. The blue hedgehog and Whisper both turned to face the side of the room that shot had come from and they saw a yellow furred thylacine with a metal jaw, wearing a black formal suit, and holding a plasma gun with one of his hands standing in the shadows of this poorly lit room. Whisper grit her teeth "Bishop."

The Bishop himself shrugged "That is indeed the title I was given when I joined The Remnants, but it is hardly my real name."

Sonic stepped away from the still lingering plasma bolt "Then what is?"

The thylacine chuckled a little "My birth name is _Hugo Lovallo_. During the war I was called _'The Maw'_ due to this little cybernetic of mine. What you wish to call me is up to you."

When he mentioned his cybernetic he motioned to his jaw. But before anyone could say or do anything else Hugo quickly said "Now then, enough about me, let's kill you."

He then immediately raised his gun up and started firing at the three. Sonic quickly jumped down to the ground, Silver also jumped out of the way and let the plasma bolt he was holding fly into a wall, and Whisper ran behind the control console that curved like a "U" around the leather chair. Sonic was quick to regain his bearings before grinning and spreading towards Hugo, but the thylacine was prepared, because when Sonic ran towards him he ducked under the hedgehog's attack and quickly ran forwards to vault over the side of the consol Sonic had been hiding behind.

Silver was shocked to see Hugo now practically in front of him, but he was quick to react before the thylacine could do anything. He lifted Hugo up with his telekinesis and threw him over to Whisper. When the thylacine landed in front of the wolf he dropped his gun and Whisper quickly stood up and transformed her Whispon into a hammer thanks to the powers of the Cube Wisp. Charging forwards, she swinged the hammer at him with all her might over and over again. Hugo barely avoided being struck by her attacks, but never enough that he could counter attack.

Blind fury powered her swings, and shock kept the other two from intervening. Quite honestly, it was shocking to see this silent and calculating wolf swing wildly at a man who was struggling to stay safe. But that all came to an end when Hugo was backed up into a wall and Whisper raised her hammer up ready to bring it down on top of the thylacine's head. That's when she decided to do something new. She opened her eyes and stared at him with her bright, practically piercing, blue eyes and stared directly into his wide open and shocked purple eyes. But before she could bring that hammer down, Silver used his telekinesis to pull it out of her hands and return it to a Whispon while Sonic rushed over to her side and said "Whisper! What do you think you're doing?!"

She looked at him, anger still boiling behind her eyes "_Helping_."

Sonic shook his head "That's not how you help, that's not how a hero acts! Whisper, a good hero doesn't kill, they try to give the villain a chance to change."

But he could tell, this wasn't directed to Hugo personally. This was directed towards Eggman. Just for a moment, Sonic was forced to remember all the evil Eggman did during his time as dictator of the world. The pain people suffered. He forced many into slavery, he turned others into robots, others disappeared for various experiments, some lost their family to Infinite or the Egg Generals, more lost loved ones to the Badnik hoards, and far to many races of Mobians were wiped off the face of the planet by Infinite or Eggman personally. Sonic had friends who suffered those fates. Bunnie Rabbot was turned into a robot when she was captured by Eggman after the first attempt at attack Metropolis Zone, Nicole the Lynx was forced to become an AI right alongside Bunnie when Gadget the Wolf couldn't save the lynx's body, and Sally Acorn's entire race, except for her and her brother, was completely eradicated by Infinite.

Whisper had to have suffered like them. Sonic closed his eyes and sighed a little before saying "Sometimes villains can't change, like Eggman. But... Would killing him, or people like him, make the world a better place? Would it make your life better knowing you killed someone, even if they deserved it?.. Personally, I don't think so."

Whisper looked over to Hugo, who was still standing against the wall in shock, and Sonic said "We don't know his connection to Eggman. For all we know, he could just be some nut job trying to continue Egghead's work. I can't pretend to not know what it's like to want revenge, I've been like there before. But it's never a good thing."

Looking over to Sonic once again, Whisper opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. She looked back over to Hugo, then looked away from the both of them and closed her eyes once again. She reached a hand up to her mask and said "Alright."

Before pulling it back over her face and walking away. Hugo, meanwhile, let out a sigh of relief "Thank _God_!"

Sonic looked over to him "Don't push your luck."

With a swift jab, Sonic knocked Hugo out cold and caught him before his face met with the metal floor. Gently, Sonic set him down and walked over to Silver, who had now occupied his time by looking through the various files Hugo had stored in the place's system. As he did, Sonic glanced over his shoulder and at Whisper who was now leaving the room. He couldn't help but ask himself silently "What did Eggman do to you?"

Silver, meanwhile, looked through file after file and said to himself "Alright, this place still uses the Eggnet. Most of this stuff is from during the war, prisoner logs, various war updates sent to every branch of the Eggman Empire, some unused designs for a_ 'Metal Sonic 3.0'_ and_ 'Metallix'_... Something called _'Project Lyric'_ and the last war update before we took down Eggman... Then nothing for a long period of time... Except for this one thing just called File 0.5."

He then opened up said file and read through it. It was about some sort of reconnaissance "The Rook" and "The Queen" was over looking, involving mercenaries and explorers. It seemed to have been conducted somewhere in central Chun-Nan. But then, something caught his eye "That can't be right.."

Sonic, who had been spacing out and not even watching Silver at that point, regained focus and looked over to the screen Silver was looking at "Wha-"

Then, suddenly, Silver yelled out "OH CRAP!"

It was loud enough even Whisper, all the way out in the hallway, heard him and turned to face the hedgehogs. Sonic looked at Silver with shock and confusion "Dude, what's up?"

Silver looked at Sonic with fear "When I accessed File 0.5 a dead man switch activated! This entire place is about to blow sky high!"

That's when Sonic understood "Crap!"

"That's what I said!"

Sonic began to back up as he continued "Silver, pick up Hugo and Whisper, we need to get out of here fast!"

The white hedgehog nodded and quickly used his telekinesis to pick the other two up as Sonic sped out of the room. Silver followed after Sonic just as quickly as Sonic lead them through the arena they had fought Theta in. But then he realized something "That wall! It's blocking the way we came in!"

Silver grit his teeth "Leave that to me!"

He strained himself and let out a blast of telekinetic energy right at the wall. That blast cut a hole through the metal and allowed them to slip right through and up a flight of metal stairs they hadn't noticed before now. Speeding upwards, the ground shuddered as the base's self destruction began to take effect. After a minute or so they came to the stop of the stairs and sped down a long hallway, deactivated Badniks littering their surroundings as they went. After a point they took a sharp turn as the base shuddered once again, this time though, the sound of the lower areas of the structure caving in could be heard as explosions rocked the rest of the base. Getting faster now, Sonic and Silver pressed forwards.

Taking a few more sharp turns as the base's condition worsened, Sonic and Silver eventually found themselves racing towards the exit of the base as bits of the roof came off and explosions grew louder. Standing in front of the sealed metal door was Hershey, and she looked at the approaching heroes with shock and fear "Guys! The thing's stuck!"

Silver flew forwards, picked Sonic and Hershey up, brought everyone closer to him, surrounded everyone with a telekinetic sphere, and hit the door with enough speed and force to bust a hole in it, allowing them outside. The sphere failed immediately after, and just as quickly the base exploded into a massive inferno that sent metal debris all over the place. Sonic tumbled across the ground and so to did Whisper and Silver, while at the same time Hershey fell back first into the dirt and Hugo went face first himself. After a moment of tumbling, Sonic came to a stop and sat up before Whisper and Silver tumbled into him and they all found themselves in a pile of limbs and discomfort. Once again, Whisper had found herself in Silver's lap.

But then, a shadow covered the group as a large chunk of metal came flying down towards them. Reacting fast, Silver raised his hands up and caught the metal with his telekinesis before tossing it away. Now that they were safe, Silver let out a large breath sigh of relief and covered his face with his hands "I thought I was done with exploding Eggman bases!"

Sonic chuckled a little "Sorry, that's not how it works.. Sadly."

He then sort of shoved the two off of him, even though Whisper was already beginning to stand up. At that sametime, Hershey came walking over "That.. Was something."

The blue hedgehog shrugged and dusted himself up as he stood upright "All in a day's work for me, how are you doing?"

She reached over and rubbed the back of one of her shoulders as she said "Sore. But glad to be out of there and alive."

Then, Hugo groaned a little and took his face out of the dirt "I understand that I'm now the Eggman Recovery Effort's prisoner, but does that mean I must be treated like this?"

Sonic just rolled his eyes before turning to Silver, who was now lying on the ground taking in deep breaths and blowing them out "You okay man? You've done a lot recently."

Silver nodded as best he could given his position "Yeah.. Tired is all."

He then stood up and dusted himself off too "But I can rest once we get back to the ERE.."

Silver turned to look at Whisper and hesitantly asked "So... I know that you do stuff solo and all.. But... After that talk we had during the Theta fight, I was wondering.. Would you want to come work with the ERE... With me?"

The wolf finally got to remove her mask from her face and nodded a little "Yes."

Silver smiled and Sonic did as well. But that moment was cut short when Silver realized what had to be done "Ugh.. Alright, everyone in close."

Even if Hugo didn't want to get close, Silver didn't give him a choice, because he used his telekinesis to drag him over. Then, the white hedgehog concentrated before using his powers to teleport them all to the ERE's headquarters. Instantaneously appearing in the lobby of the building, Silver staggered backwards a little as he was hit by even worse exhaustion. The bright cyan flash of light that came with their teleportation caught the eye of a pink hedgehog that was walking by. Amy ran over and asked "Sonic? Silver? Are you to okay?"

Sonic nodded "Yeah.. Silver's just tired... Uh, we found Hershey and brought you a new recruit."

Whisper then nudged Sonic a little and he remembered "Oh, and we've captured that Bishop guy."

Amy blinked a few times in shock "I... Okay.."

Looking over to Hugo she asked "Are you-"

He quickly raised his hand "Yes, I am Bishop. Call me Hugo or Maw, I could care less at this point."

Sonic brought a hand up to the side of his mouth and leaned over to Amy "He's just mad cuz we beat everything he threw at us."

Hugo just rolled his eyes as ERE officials came walking over to handcuff him and to lead Hershey away. Sonic watched that happen before saying "Also, I think Silver found something in that place's files."

Silver nodded, still tired but holding in there "Yeah... I found this file that seemed to be about some sort of recon mission in Chun-Nan, it was definitely something the ERE should look into. But then it became an even bigger deal, because I then saw that the recon mission was being conducted to find some city called _'Shanri Xa'_ by a Rook and a Queen, they found it. And in it, according to the file... Was _Eggman_."


	7. The Final Update

Alright. Well... It's been a long while, hasn't it?

So, first and foremost, I'm pretty sure that a good portion of the people who will be reading this will be... Disappointed, maybe even mad, and that's fine I get it. But, time to cut to the chase. I've come with mostly bad news, but also with some good.

It's nothing like, life altering for me. I'm perfectly fine and healthy and all that, trust me. No, instead, the bad news is for this story. It's canceled, and I have my reasons.

The biggest reason would honestly be that it's been so long since I've written for it that I don't have faith I can deliver on what was set up and not make it feel cheap or unfulfilling. In addition, I no longer have a large drive to write for it anymore. Yes, I'd honestly love to finish this, and I do feel bad that I couldn't. But this is what must be done if I want to get back to writing on here again. Writing fanfiction in general.

There might be some of you who read the original version of Aftermath, a sequel to Sonic: Resistance, and you might be feeling deja vu from this. Don't worry, I feel the same way. But unlike last time, I have no real want to make a sequel to Sonic: Resistance. I want to make a new world, I want to write new stories, I just want to do new things again. I want to feel like my writing is fresh again.

Now, what's the good news? It's simple. I've got more stories I'm going to tell. I'm not giving up, never ever will I do that. Honestly, there's nothing much to tell all of you as it's all still very much a bunch of WiPs. So, just keep an eye out. Have faith in me, because I can come up with ideas all I want, but getting support when I publish those stories keeps me publishing.

So, yes. It ends here. Sonic Resistance 2: Aftermath ends, and I will admit it's my fault it ends like this. But, if anyone wants to get a much better version of a continuation of Sonic: Resistance, go ahead and read IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog! It's a great comic series with just as great characters.


End file.
